Figure 3.

Long-term exercise is associated with reduced repetitive element (RE) transcript expression in humans. (A) MA plots showing gene expression differences in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of older (O) vs young (Y) sedentary, and older exercising (O-EX) vs Y adults. N = 4–5 matched samples per group. Note the ~1,200 transcripts significantly increased/decreased with aging but largely reversed with exercise (red data points, FDR < 0.1 and Log2 fold change >1, identified using Deseq2). (B) MA plots showing RE transcript levels in the same samples/subjects. Note general upward shift and numerous significantly increased RE transcripts with aging (red, FDR < 0.1, identified using Deseq2) that are largely reversed with exercise. (C) Correlation between maximal aerobic exercise capacity (VO₂ max) and composite count of RE transcripts significantly increased with aging (O vs Y) in all subjects. All plots are based on data generated using the TEtranscripts pipeline (which includes gene expression counts), and human subjects characteristics are provided in the Supplementary Data.