For an article I went on a search which focused on plant aging, for in all we have learned I see how we focus on mammals. I feel that plants could have a significant story about aging for there are species of trees which can last a long time.
The article I found mainly attempted to answer the questions. What is the process of aging and plants and how it is regulated and recognized? It is a long arduous article, but it has some great points on how genes are contributors to the aging process.
The plant used in this research has a cell process which occurs in a predictable manner, making it easy to monitor and recreate in various situations and easy to manipulate. The article refers to the senescence in the plant cells as programmed cell death (PCD) of the leaf. This connects to the greater idea of genes holding the map of life, deciding when the cells will die- as though it is coded in the genes for the plants to live a certain length of time.
The idea of the aging of plants arises in the dual situations of aging. One is replicative senescence or the degeneration of the cell preventing further divisions of the cell. The other, post mitotic aging, happens after cellular maturity is reached. This sparks some curiosity in my aging understanding, making the ways in which aging occurs on the cellular level by many factors more evident.
Then finally, one of my favorite topics arose as they discussed how the plants aging depends on genes as well as environmental factors such as stress and nutrients, but there is proof of overlap for these biologists believe that genes play a role in interpreting/inducing the characteristics brought about by environmental persuasion. I have delved into this topic much in my experiences in Biology, but this is the first instance where genes have arisen as accessories in the act of nature on the development of an organism, though this idea makes complete sense. The researchers lead into their discovery of Sags, or senescence associated genes. These are later broken down into classes of genes five of which are involved in the initiation of senescence in the cells and one which carries out the process in the cell.
Later they touch on a subject which i have developed an interest in when they post whether there should be a cellular mechanism that can measure the age of a cell. If senescence in a cell is dependent in large part on the genes of the cell, why then can’t the genome be read to determine the age of the cell. Though I am sure there is much more to this implication than meets the eye. I feel this topic could someday be of great importance- if it can ever be harnessed for use.
Truly an interesting topic..I'm eager to hear more in class.
Neat article. Cool that you could relate it to your own intersts in biology and what you have covered in class. I think it is always interesting and adds to my own understanding when I can relate something to what I already know/understand.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought- but I think that when we are trying to measure the cellular age of the cell, we might keep in mind the fact that we aren't quite sure what is "beneficial" and what is "harmful" at different ages of the lifespan (one thing might protect us earlier in life but be harmful later on, etc.)
Thanks for sharing the article and your thoughtful reflection :)