Role of DNA Damage and Repair in Aging

Dear Colleagues,

In the tissues of aging animals and humans, the frequency of DNA damage and somatic mutations increases and so-called genome instability arises, which is expressed in a set of point mutations, breaks, and cross-links of DNA strands, transpositions and translocations, and aneuploidies. Moreover, different somatic cells accumulate mutations at different rates. As a result, clones of cells with a slightly different genotype are formed in an aging organism, inducing somatic mosaicism. Somatic mutagenesis as a key mechanism of aging was proposed by Leo Szilard in 1959; however, due to methodological difficulties, it was not easy to prove the accumulation of mutations in tissues with age. Signs of accelerated aging in people with congenital mutations in DNA repair genes (for example, Werner's syndrome, Cockain's syndrome, Bloom's syndrome, xeroderma pigmentosa, ataxia-telangiectasia, and others) remained the main argument for many years. It was later found that species with extreme longevity, such as naked mole rats, Brandt's bats, whales, mole rats, and parrots, have adaptive repair mechanisms that increase the stability of their DNA. Apparently, reliable methods of DNA protection are one of the reasons for the "immortality" of germline cells. However, the emergence of modern methods of analysis—in particular, single-cell genome sequencing, as well as transcriptome sequencing—made it possible to see the somatic mutational landscape of the human body, including in age dynamics.

In the Special Issue, "Role of DNA Damage and Repair in Aging", we expect papers on the aging-related dynamics of DNA damages, aneuploidy and somatic mutations in somatic and germinative tissues, the role of DNA repair in aging and longevity in human (including centenarians) and different species, and epigenetic stability with age.

Prof. Dr. Vadim Fraifeld
Prof. Alexey Moskalev
Guest Editors

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• aging
• longevity
• DNA damage
• DNA repair
• DNA scars
• damage response
• genomic instability