{"id":1979,"date":"2022-02-14T15:21:48","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T15:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/biological-sciences\/?p=1979"},"modified":"2022-03-03T17:11:26","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T17:11:26","slug":"patel-lab-earns-new-grant-to-study-evolutionary-trade-offs-between-reproduction-and-aging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/biological-sciences\/patel-lab-earns-new-grant-to-study-evolutionary-trade-offs-between-reproduction-and-aging\/","title":{"rendered":"Patel Lab earns new grant to study evolutionary trade-offs between reproduction and aging"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Feb. 4, 2022, 9:00 AM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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By: Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Maulik Patel and his lab have received a Pilot Research Grant from the Vanderbilt Evolutionary Studies Initiative to study reproduction and aging.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Submitted Photo | Patel, Held and their team take a basic science approach to study mitochondrial homeostasis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to one theory in evolution, aging is the price animals pay for reproduction. Research in the Patel lab uses the tiny but experimentally mighty roundworm model organisms\u00a0<\/span>Caenorhabditis elegans<\/span><\/i>\u00a0to examine the connection. The researchers employ CRISPR genome engineering technology to determine what genes affect which cellular processes or correct cellular glitches.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge has always been to identify the molecular basis for the evolutionary tradeoff between (somatic) body maintenance and reproduction,\u201d Patel said. \u201cUsing\u00a0<\/span>C. elegans<\/span><\/i>\u00a0and a fluorescent reporter provides an elegant framework to think about this tradeoff and, more generally, how we age.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ph.D. candidate James Held, who is participating in the work, said, \u201cWe decided to study the soma-reproductive tradeoff because the associated phenotype that we serendipitously came across was just too remarkable not to follow up on.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The researchers use a fluorescent reporter that illuminates cells when their mitochondria, or power center, stop working. The reporter signals that the cell has employed a process to help the impaired mitochondria, the mitochondrial unfolded protein response, or\u00a0UPR<\/span>mt<\/span>\u00a0for short.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe fluorescent reporter \u2026 gives us a quantifiable way to measure distress,\u201d Patel said. \u201cHistorically, studies use lifespan as a measure of maintenance. However, lifespan is a complex phenotype, measurements are notoriously variable and the biological significance of small differences is not always clear.\u201d By using mitochondrial distress, the lab has a quantifiable and practical way to measure changes in somatic maintenance.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Held described the process he used that led to questions about the tradeoff: \u201cI created a mutant in which a protein called HOE-1 cannot leave the nucleus because its nuclear export signal\u2014NES for short\u2014is compromised. I found that the NES mutant robustly induces\u00a0UPRmt, seen most obviously by activation of the\u00a0UPRmt\u00a0reporter.\u201d These mutants grew normally but were sterile and could not reproduce.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They then wanted to clarify the role the HOE-1 protein played in activating\u00a0UPRmt. \u201cThus, to complement the NES mutant, I made a strain in which nuclear HOE-1 is overexpressed. Surprisingly,\u00a0UPRmt\u00a0is not activated in these animals.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Held noticed that the main difference between the NES mutant and complementary mutant was that the complementary one was not sterile\u2014which led to the link in a tradeoff between maintenance and reproduction.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Patel, \u201cGiven the importance of the topic and the exciting findings, this new project will be a major focus of the lab. I\u2019m really excited to see where James and the other trainees can help take this project.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The ESI grant may fundamentally expand the work conducted in Patel\u2019s lab and will provide preliminary data to seed a larger National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant this summer.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Feb. 4, 2022, 9:00 AM By: Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator\u00a0 Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Maulik Patel and his lab have received a Pilot Research Grant from the Vanderbilt Evolutionary Studies Initiative to study reproduction and aging. Submitted Photo | Patel, Held and their team take a basic science approach to study…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[8],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-cas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/02\/22133603\/Patel-Group-Photo1-600x450-1-e1644852089650.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/biological-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/biological-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/biological-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/biological-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/biological-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1979"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/biological-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2004,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/biological-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979\/revisions\/2004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/biological-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/biological-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/biological-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/biological-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}