title: Tracing the dynamics of gene transcripts after organismal death.
abstract: In life, genetic and epigenetic networks precisely coordinate the expression of genes-but in death, it is not known if gene expression diminishes gradually or abruptly stops or if specific genes and pathways are involved. We studied this by identifying mRNA transcripts that apparently increase in relative abundance after death, assessing their functions, and comparing their abundance profiles through postmortem time in two species, mouse and zebrafish. We found mRNA transcript profiles of 1063 genes became significantly more abundant after death of healthy adult animals in a time series spanning up to 96 h postmortem. Ordination plots revealed non-random patterns in the profiles by time. While most of these transcript levels increased within 0.5 h postmortem, some increased only at 24 and 48 h postmortem. Functional characterization of the most abundant transcripts revealed the following categories: stress, immunity, inflammation, apoptosis, transport, development, epigenetic regulation and cancer. The data suggest a step-wise shutdown occurs in organismal death that is manifested by the apparent increase of certain transcripts with various abundance maxima and durations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Health Sciences, University of Washington, PO Box 357444, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.|Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, August-Thienemann-Strasse 2, 24306 Ploen, Germany.
authors.forename: Alex E
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6566-6450
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Pozhitkov
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, August-Thienemann-Strasse 2, 24306 Ploen, Germany.
authors.forename: Rafik
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8462-5291
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Neme
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics, Division of Molecular Biology, Ruđer Bošković Institute, 10002 Zagreb, Croatia.|Catholic University of Croatia, Ilica 242, Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Tomislav
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1020-9073
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Domazet-Lošo
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Health Sciences, University of Washington, PO Box 357444, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
authors.forename: Brian G
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8921-7921
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Leroux
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Alabama State University, Montgomery, AL 36101-0271, USA.
authors.forename: Shivani
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6368-4177
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Soni
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, August-Thienemann-Strasse 2, 24306 Ploen, Germany.
authors.forename: Diethard
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0460-5344
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tautz
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontics, University of Washington, PO Box 357444, Seattle, WA 98195, USA panoble@washington.edu.|Department of Biological Sciences, Alabama State University, Montgomery, AL 36101-0271, USA.|PhD Program in Microbiology, Alabama State University, Montgomery, AL 36101-0271, USA.
authors.forename: Peter A
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6013-2588
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Noble
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003643:Death; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D015854:Up-Regulation; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: Gene Meters; cancer; developmental control; forensic science; postmortem transcriptome; transplantology