Calorie restriction and the exercise of chromatin

  1. Alejandro Vaquero1,4 and
  2. Danny Reinberg2,3
  1. 1Chromatin Biology Laboratory, Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Program (PEBC), ICREA, and IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona 08907, Spain;
  2. 2Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Biochemistry, New York University-Medical School, New York, New York 10016, USA

    Abstract

    Since the earliest stages of evolution, organisms have faced the challenge of sensing and adapting to environmental changes for their survival under compromising conditions such as food depletion or stress. Implicit in these responses are mechanisms developed during evolution that include the targeting of chromatin to allow or prevent expression of fundamental genes and to protect genome integrity. Among the different approaches to study these mechanisms, the analysis of the response to a moderate reduction of energy intake, also known as calorie restriction (CR), has become one of the best sources of information regarding the factors and pathways involved in metabolic adaptation from lower to higher eukaryotes. Furthermore, responses to CR are involved in life span regulation—conserved from yeast to mammals—and therefore have garnered major research interest. Herein we review current knowledge of responses to CR at the molecular level and their functional link to chromatin.

    Keywords

    Footnotes

    • 3 Correspondence.

      EMAIL reinbd01{at}nyumc.org; FAX (212) 263-9040.

    • 4 EMAIL avaquero{at}idibell.cat; FAX 34-93-2607219.

    • Article published online ahead of print. Article and publication date are online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1807009.

    • Freely available online through the Genes & Development Open Access option.

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