Gribble Kristin E
Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, USA.
Nutr Healthy Aging. 2021 Jan 20;6(1):1-15. doi: 10.3233/NHA-200104.
Because every species has unique attributes relevant to understanding specific aspects of aging, using a diversity of study systems and a comparative biology approach for aging research has the potential to lead to novel discoveries applicable to human health. Monogonont rotifers, a standard model for studies of aquatic ecology, evolutionary biology, and ecotoxicology, have also been used to study lifespan and healthspan for nearly a century. However, because much of this work has been published in the ecology and evolutionary biology literature, it may not be known to the biomedical research community. In this review, we provide an overview of rotifers as a model to investigate nutritional and metabolic regulators of aging, with a focus on recent studies of dietary and metabolic pathway manipulation. Rotifers are microscopic, aquatic invertebrates with many advantages as a system for studying aging, including a two-week lifespan, easy laboratory culture, direct development without a larval stage, sexual and asexual reproduction, easy delivery of pharmaceuticals in liquid culture, and transparency allowing imaging of cellular morphology and processes. Rotifers have greater gene homology with humans than do established invertebrate models for aging, and thus rotifers may be used to investigate novel genetic mechanisms relevant to human lifespan and healthspan. The research on caloric restriction; dietary, pharmaceutical, and genetic interventions; and transcriptomics of aging using rotifers provide insights into the metabolic regulators of lifespan and health and suggest future directions for aging research. Capitalizing on the unique biology of rotifers, referencing the vast existing literature about the influence of diet and drugs on rotifer lifespan and health, continuing the development of genetic tools for rotifers, and growing the rotifer research community will lead to new discoveries a better understanding of the biology of aging.
由于每个物种都具有与理解衰老特定方面相关的独特属性，因此使用多种研究系统和比较生物学方法进行衰老研究有可能带来适用于人类健康的新发现。单巢轮虫是水生生态学、进化生物学和生态毒理学研究的标准模型，近一个世纪以来也一直被用于研究寿命和健康寿命。然而，由于这项工作的大部分已发表在生态学和进化生物学文献中，生物医学研究界可能并不知晓。在这篇综述中，我们概述了轮虫作为研究衰老的营养和代谢调节因子的模型，重点关注饮食和代谢途径操纵的最新研究。轮虫是微小的水生无脊椎动物，作为研究衰老的系统具有许多优势，包括两周的寿命、易于在实验室培养、无幼虫阶段的直接发育、有性和无性繁殖、易于在液体培养中给药，以及透明度高，便于对细胞形态和过程进行成像。与已有的衰老无脊椎动物模型相比，轮虫与人类的基因同源性更高，因此轮虫可用于研究与人类寿命和健康寿命相关的新遗传机制。利用轮虫进行的热量限制、饮食、药物和基因干预以及衰老转录组学研究，为寿命和健康的代谢调节因子提供了见解，并为衰老研究指明了未来方向。利用轮虫独特的生物学特性，参考大量关于饮食和药物对轮虫寿命和健康影响的现有文献，继续开发轮虫的遗传工具，并壮大轮虫研究群体，将带来新的发现，增进对衰老生物学的理解。
