Ribosome, Protein Synthesis, and Aging

Abstract

Aging involves a steady decline in the organism’s fitness leading to disease and death. Loss of proteostasis and genomic instability are considered to be some of the hallmarks of aging. The molecular aging of proteins due to chemical changes and damage to the polypeptide chains contributes to loss of proteostasis, while dysregulation of the transcriptional surveillance mechanisms leads to genomic instability. Emerging evidence points to a causative relationship between the regulation of protein synthesis and aging. This chapter attempts to summarize the involvement of various components of the translation machinery in the aging process and how they in turn get reciprocally affected by it. The roles played by the ribosome, transcriptional and translational regulation, and the signaling pathways regulating these processes during aging have been discussed. Also, theories suggesting the correlation between downregulation of protein synthesis and its contribution to longevity have been explained.