The rate of telomere loss is related to maximum lifespan in birds

Gianna M Tricola, Mirre J P Simons, Els Atema, Raoul K Boughton, J L Brown, Donald C Dearborn, G Divoky, John A Eimes, Charles E Huntington, Alexander S Kitaysky, Frans A Juola, David B Lank, Hannah P Litwa, Ellis G A Mulder, Ian C T Nisbet, Kazuo Okanoya, Rebecca J Safran, Stephan J Schoech, Elizabeth A Schreiber, Paul M ThompsonSimon Verhulst, Nathaniel T Wheelwright, David W Winkler, Rebecca Young, Carol M Vleck, Mark F Haussmann

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

96 Citations (Scopus)
12 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Telomeres are highly conserved regions of DNA that protect the ends of linear chromosomes. The loss of telomeres can signal an irreversible change to a cell's state, including cellular senescence. Senescent cells no longer divide and can damage nearby healthy cells, thus potentially placing them at the crossroads of cancer and ageing. While the epidemiology, cellular and molecular biology of telomeres are well studied, a newer field exploring telomere biology in the context of ecology and evolution is just emerging. With work to date focusing on how telomere shortening relates to individual mortality, less is known about how telomeres relate to ageing rates across species. Here, we investigated telomere length in cross-sectional samples from 19 bird species to determine how rates of telomere loss relate to interspecific variation in maximum lifespan. We found that bird species with longer lifespans lose fewer telomeric repeats each year compared with species with shorter lifespans. In addition, phylogenetic analysis revealed that the rate of telomere loss is evolutionarily conserved within bird families. This 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, different lifespans observed across species.This article is part of the theme issue 'Understanding diversity in telomere dynamics'.

Original languageEnglish
Article number20160445
JournalPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Volume373
Issue number1741
Early online date15 Jan 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Mar 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding. M.F.H. was supported in part by a National Science Foundation
(NSF) Doctoral Dissertation Improvement grant no. (0408008), a
Glenn/American Federation of Aging Research scholarship, a Leverhulme
Trust grant no. (VP2-2013-032) and a National Institute of
Health grant (1R15 HD083870-01A1). M.J.P.S. was supported by the
Natural Environment Research Council (M005941 and N013832), and
by Sir Henry Wellcome (WT107400MA) and Sheffield Vice-Chancellor’s
Fellowships. This manuscript represents contribution no. 268
from the Bowdoin Scientific Station.
Acknowledgements. Thank you to the Leverhulme-funded International
Network for supporting the Telomere Workshops, and the many
participants for helpful discussion.

Keywords

  • Journal Article
  • telomeres
  • bird
  • lifespan
  • ageing
  • senescence
  • comparative analysis

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The rate of telomere loss is related to maximum lifespan in birds'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this