Developmental switches in reiterated genes may reduce the rate of age changes in DNA.
The possible role of the redundancy of genetic information in the regulation of the ageing rate has been discussed in several works. However, it was shown recently that the gene reiteration in most cases is represented by families of similar, but not identical genes. Their expression usually related to the different stages of development and when "early" embryonic or fetal genes are active, the "late" or adult genes are repressed. It is known that the DNA repair needs double stranded structure of DNA which is usual for inactive genes. Genes which are being transcribed and active are repressed by unwound, relaxed DNA which is less protected by the DNA repair enzymes. Aging of genetic information in somatic cells can be, therefore, considered as stage specific and alterations of "early" embryonic and fetal genes do not constitute the genetic load which influences the ageing rate of differentiated cells.
D000375:Aging; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics*; D004260:DNA Repair; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus; D005796:Genes; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D004247:DNA