Cell Energy and Genome Health Link Found

U.S. scientists have found eliminating two catalysts vital to managing a yeast cell’s energy results in turning off 70 percent of the cell’s 5,000 genes.

We were completely unprepared for such a dramatic event, said John Hopkins University molecular biology Professor Jef Boeke, senior author of the study.

We’ve never seen anything that can turn off that many genes in a cell at once.

The unexpected finding linking both gene usage and energy management machinery is like finding out that an enzyme that breaks down food in the stomach also helps you remember telephone numbers or that preventing such digestion makes you forget them, Boeke added.

The researchers say the discovery might lead to new strategies to slow aging and treat cancer — events closely linked to changes in gene control and energy metabolism.

The study appears in the journal Molecular Cell.