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  • Review Article
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Recent progress in the biology and physiology of sirtuins

Abstract

The sirtuins are a highly conserved family of NAD+-dependent enzymes that regulate lifespan in lower organisms. Recently, the mammalian sirtuins have been connected to an ever widening circle of activities that encompass cellular stress resistance, genomic stability, tumorigenesis and energy metabolism. Here we review the recent progress in sirtuin biology, the role these proteins have in various age-related diseases and the tantalizing notion that the activity of this family of enzymes somehow regulates how long we live.

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Figure 1: Mouse knockout models as tools for exploring sirtuin function.
Figure 2: The diverse physiological roles of the sirtuins.
Figure 3: Complex regulation of SIRT1 activity.

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Acknowledgements

We apologize to our colleagues for being unable to cite all appropriate references owing to space limitations. Highlighted references are a subjective appraisal of some of the most interesting manuscripts published in the last year. We are grateful to I. Rovira for help with figures. This work was supported by NIH Intramural funds (T.F, C.-X.D.), The Ellison Medical Foundation (T.F.), The Sidney Kimmel Cancer Research Foundation (R.M.) and the V Foundation (R.M.).

Author Contributions All authors contributed to the writing of this Review.

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Correspondence to Chu-Xia Deng.

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Finkel, T., Deng, CX. & Mostoslavsky, R. Recent progress in the biology and physiology of sirtuins. Nature 460, 587–591 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08197

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