Journal Article10.1016/J.TREE.2005.11.007
Do telomere dynamics link lifestyle and lifespan
Pat Monaghan,Mark F. Haussmann +1 more
TL;DR: What is currently known about the factors influencing telomere regulation, and how this relates to fundamental questions about the relationship between lifestyle and lifespan are discussed are discussed.
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Abstract: Identifying and understanding the processes that underlie the observed variation in lifespan within and among species remains one of the central areas of biological research. Questions directed at how, at what rate and why organisms grow old and die link disciplines such as evolutionary ecology to those of cell biology and gerontology. One process now thought to have a key role in ageing is the pattern of erosion of the protective ends of chromosomes, the telomeres. Here, we discuss what is currently known about the factors influencing telomere regulation, and how this relates to fundamental questions about the relationship between lifestyle and lifespan.
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Citations
Telomere length reflects phenotypic quality and costs of reproduction in a long-lived seabird
TL;DR: The results suggest that reproductive success is achieved at the expense of telomeres, but that individual heterogeneity in susceptibility to such detrimental effects is important, as indicated by low telomere loss in the most successful birds.
168
Telomerase activity is maintained throughout the lifespan of long-lived birds
TL;DR: This study offers an alternative view to the commonly held hypothesis that telomerase activity is down-regulated in all post-mitotic somatic tissues in long-lived organisms as a tumor-protective mechanism and highlights the need for more comparative analyses of telomersase, lifespan and the incidence of tumor formation.
165
Do glucocorticoids mediate the link between environmental conditions and telomere dynamics in wild vertebrates? A review
TL;DR: The relationships that link environmental conditions, glucocorticoids (GC, the main hormonal mediator of allostasis) and telomere length in vertebrates are reviewed and new hypotheses regarding the potential of the GC stress response to drive the trade-off between immediate survival andtelomere protection are raised.
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The rate of telomere loss is related to maximum lifespan in birds
Gianna M Tricola,Mirre J. P. Simons,Els Atema,Raoul K. Boughton,Jerram L. Brown,Donald C. Dearborn,George J. Divoky,John A. Eimes,Charles E. Huntington,Alexander S. Kitaysky,Frans A. Juola,David B. Lank,Hannah P. Litwa,Ellis Mulder,Ian C. T. Nisbet,Kazuo Okanoya,Rebecca J. Safran,Stephan J. Schoech,E. A. Schreiber,Paul M. Thompson,Simon Verhulst,Nathaniel T. Wheelwright,David W. Winkler,Rebecca C. Young,Carol M. Vleck,Mark F. Haussmann +25 more
TL;DR: It is found that bird species with longer lifespans lose fewer telomeric repeats each year compared with species with shorter Lifespans, which suggests that the physiological causes of telomere shortening, or the ability to maintain telomeres, are features that may be responsible for, or co-evolved with, differentlifespans observed across species.
Immune genes are hotspots of shared positive selection across birds and mammals.
TL;DR: The results suggest that pathogens, particularly viruses, consistently target the same genes across divergent clades, and that these genes are hotspots of host-pathogen conflict over deep evolutionary time.
138
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