Figure 1.

Age-associated shutdown of transcription preferentially affects long genes

(A) Gene expression is highly conserved but shows a detectable decay with aging. Scatterplots showing the average gene expression in 24-month-old mice against average gene expression in 3-month-old mice in 11 tissues (12 comparisons) from the TMS FACS and the TMS droplet datasets.²⁰ Each dot represents a gene. N: number of single cells; n: number of biological replicates. R²: coefficient of determination. The gray line represents y = x.

(B) A generalized shutdown of transcription is apparent in long genes. The scatterplots show the average gene expression of the 25% shortest (yellow) and the 25% longest (blue) genes in 24-month-old versus 3-month-old mice. β_s and β_l represent the slopes of the straight lines that best fit the data points corresponding to short and long genes, respectively. The number of young (n_y) and old (n_o) biological replicates are shown.

See also Figures S1 and S2 and Tables S1 and S2.