Connecting small RNAs and Aging

Website Summary Small RNAs are important gene regulators of stress response, aging, and many other things. More analysis needs to be done in order to gain a better understanding of these molecules to find connections between small RNAs and important things like aging. Summary Small RNAs are a diverse population of gene regulators, but their role in the cell is not fully characterized. Bioinformatics was used to prove their connection with aging and expand current knowledge for these molecules. Small RNAs have a wide range of functions and recent studies have found connections between these molecules and aging pathways. However, the process to systematically characterize this relationship is slow. Prediction tools can be used to expedite this process by finding new genes and pathways that cross talk with each other. Using phylogenetic and systems analysis, connections between small RNAs and aging were proven and new genes that may be related to aging were identified. This type of analysis can be applied to many different pathways in order to fully characterize the role of small RNAs.