Sirtuins, metabolism, and DNA repair

Abstract

Cells evolve to actively coordinate nutrient availability with cellular activity in order to maintain metabolic homeostasis. In addition, active pathways to repair DNA damage are crucial to avoid deleterious genomic instability. In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that availability of intermediate metabolites may play an important role in DNA repair, suggesting that these two seemingly distant cellular activities may be highly coordinated. The sirtuin family of proteins now described as deacylases (they can also remove acyl groups other than acetyl moieties), it appears to have evolved to control both metabolism and DNA repair. In this review, we discuss recent advances that lay the foundation to understanding the role of sirtuins in these two biological processes, and the potential crosstalk to coordinate them.

Figure 1. Sirtuins functions in metabolism and DNA repair

A diagram depicting the different functions for the mammalian sirtuins in cellular metabolism (red) and DNA repair (blue). Specific targets and biological roles are summarized.