In this week’s edition of Bioinformatics (Oxford Journals), Dr Martin Grigorov, from Nestlé Research Center (NRC) in Lausanne, Switzerland, reports about a novel analysis of gene expression events throughout the whole lifetime of an organism. The contribution is available on the Bioinformatics Journal Internet site.
The author analyzed gene expression events measured by microarray technology at 66 different time points over the lifetime of the model organism Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly. The study covered the embryonic, larval, pupal and adult phases of development. Time-series analysis techniques commonly applied in finance, geophysics or astronomy revealed unexpected patterns in gene activity.
For healthy organisms, divergence of gene activity in the embryonic and late adult phases far exceeded the ordered and synchronized gene activity in the larval and pupal phases. The emerging picture seemed to confirm an intuitively appealing interpretation of life - it is a complex process driving biological forms of matter from disorder to highly-structured and uniform states for a limited time, returning to a multitude of unstructured states in the latest phases of development.
In the new millennium, Nestlé is moving towards a food, nutrition, health and wellness company. The Group’s nutrition business aims at developing new products that promote health and prevent diseases. Dr Grigorov, explains the potential importance of the findings in understanding the molecular signature of health and in testing the means to extend this state over longer periods than could previously be expected. Food plays a key role in health throughout life. Being able to monitor the time-resolved effects of consuming individual foods at the level of gene activity offers exciting prospects in designing foods and/or diets that prolong the steady state of health well into old age. However, environmental and other factors will also have to be considered, so the intriguing preliminary results on the model organism should be verified by extensive studies of gene activity in humans.
Reference of the article:
M. Grigorov, 2006, "Global dynamics of biological systems from time-resolved omics experiments", Bioinformatics 22(12): 1424-1430.
- For more information, please contact:
- Dr Martin Grigorov, Nestlé Research Center, Tel.: 0041-79-201 99 36, e-mail : martin.grigorov@rdls.nestle.com
- Ms H. van der Kaaij, Communication Group, Nestlé Research Center, Tel.: 0041-21-785 95 57, e-mail : hengameh.vanderkaaij@rdls.nestle.com