Function
Studies in mice have revealed that Sirt6 is essential for post-natal development and survival. Sirt6 knock-out mice, in which the gene encoding Sirt6 has been disrupted, exhibit a severe progeria, or premature aging syndrome, characterized by spinal curvature, greying of the fur, lymphopenia and low levels of blood glucose. The lifespan of Sirt6 knock-out mice is typically one to three months, dependent upon the strain in which the Sirt6 gene has been deleted. By contrast, wild type mice, which retain expression of Sirt6, exhibit a maximum lifespan of two to four years.
Mice which have been genetically engineered to overexpress, or produce more, Sirt6 protein exhibit an extended maximum lifespan. This lifespan extension, of about 15-16 percent, is observed only in male mice.
Read more about this topic: SIRT6
Famous quotes containing the word function:
“The function of literature, through all its mutations, has been to make us aware of the particularity of selves, and the high authority of the self in its quarrel with its society and its culture. Literature is in that sense subversive.”
—Lionel Trilling (1905–1975)
“If the children and youth of a nation are afforded opportunity to develop their capacities to the fullest, if they are given the knowledge to understand the world and the wisdom to change it, then the prospects for the future are bright. In contrast, a society which neglects its children, however well it may function in other respects, risks eventual disorganization and demise.”
—Urie Bronfenbrenner (b. 1917)
“Of all the inhabitants of the inferno, none but Lucifer knows that hell is hell, and the secret function of purgatory is to make of heaven an effective reality.”
—Arnold Bennett (1867–1931)