Dolphins and Diabetes: Applying One Health for Breakthrough Discoveries

Venn‐Watson, Stephanie

doi:10.3389/fendo.2014.00227

Cited by 10 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 19 publications

(22 reference statements)

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“…This response to glucose is similar to the GTT test of the PPARα -/- mice. Hence key genes such as PPARα, AKT and PI3K in the insulin signaling pathway may be positively selected as an evolutionary driver for insulin resistance and to switch between type 2 and type 1 diabetes like states (S. Venn-Watson, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Especially as mTOR is involved in nutrient sensing. As dolphins are able to switch between type 2 and type 1 diabetes like states based on their meal content (S. Venn-Watson, 2014), specific components both up- and down-stream from mTOR may be positively selected to facilitate such a response. In rats, a ketogenic diet (low in carbohydrates) are able to reduce mTOR expression and likely via AKT (McDaniel, Rensing, Thio, Yamada, & Wong, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adaptations of energy metabolism in cetaceans have consequences for their response to foraging disruption

Derous

Sahu

Douglas

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Cetaceans have varied their anatomical structure, physiology and metabolism to adapt to the challenges of aquatic life. Key to this change is the deposition of blubber. This adipose tissue plays a significant regulatory and signaling role in mammalian metabolism. As foraging disruption by human activities is emerging as a key conservation threat for cetaceans, we need to understand how selection for aquatic life might have altered key nutrient sensing pathways associated with adipose signaling. We compared selection pressure on those energy metabolism biological pathways by contrasting the rate of substitution observed in genes associated with them in cetacean and artiodactyl genomes. We then estimated the likely consequence of these selection pressures for pathway functions. Here we show that genes involved in the insulin, mTOR, SIRT and NF-κB pathways were under significant positive selection in cetaceans compared to their terrestrial sister taxon. Our results suggest these genes may have been positively selected to adapt to a glucose-poor diet and it is unlikely that fat depots signaling function in the same manner as in terrestrial mammals. Secondary adaptation to life in water significantly affected functions in nutrient sensing pathways in cetaceans. Insulin is not likely to play the same role in energy balance as it does in terrestrial mammals and adiposity is not likely to have the deleterious health consequences it has in terrestrial mammals. The physiological ecology of cetacean fat deposition, and therefore its value as a condition index, needs to be interpreted in this evolutionary context.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptations of energy metabolism in cetaceans have consequences for their response to foraging disruption

Derous

Sahu

Douglas

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…For more than 50 y, the US Navy has cared for a sustained population of approximately 100 bottlenose dolphins over three generations (22). Navy dolphins receive a high level of care from experienced veterinarians including, importantly, routine blood sampling to assess 44 clinical measures over their lifespan.…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bottlenose dolphin ( Tursiops truncatus ) populations have been studied for their similarities with humans in terms of the diseases they experience ( 20 – 24 ). For example, it has been observed that aging dolphins, both in the wild and under human care, can develop chronic aging-associated conditions, including chronic inflammation, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, and iron dysregulation, with biomarker reference ranges remarkably similar to those of humans ( 20 , 24 – 27 ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A 25-y longitudinal dolphin cohort supports that long-lived individuals in same environment exhibit variation in aging rates

Venn‐Watson

Jensen

Schork

2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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While it is believed that humans age at different rates, a lack of robust longitudinal human studies using consensus biomarkers meant to capture aging rates has hindered an understanding of the degree to which individuals vary in their rates of aging. Because bottlenose dolphins are long-lived mammals that develop comorbidities of aging similar to humans, we analyzed data from a well-controlled, 25-y longitudinal cohort of 144 US Navy dolphins housed in the same oceanic environment. Our analysis focused on 44 clinically relevant hematologic and clinical chemistry measures recorded during routine blood draws throughout the dolphins’ lifetimes. Using stepwise regression and general linear models that accommodate correlations between measures obtained on individual dolphins, we demonstrate that, in a manner similar to humans, dolphins exhibit independent and linear age-related declines in four of these measures: hemoglobin, alkaline phosphatase, platelets, and lymphocytes. Using linear regressions and analyses of covariance with post hoc Tukey–Kramer tests to compare slopes (i.e., linear age-related rates) of our four aging rate biomarkers among 34 individual dolphins aging from 10 y to up to 40 y old, we could identify slow and accelerated agers and differentiate subgroups that were more or less likely to develop anemia and lymphopenia. This study successfully documents aging rate differences over the lifetime of long-lived individuals in a controlled environment. Our study suggests that nonenvironmental factors influencing aging rate biomarkers, including declining hemoglobin and anemia, may be targeted to delay the effects of aging in a compelling model of human biology.

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“…It provides structure to catalogue diversity within and between species at the whole-genome level. In addition, the parallel molecular trajectory between dolphin and other mammalian species [12] makes the bottlenose dolphin a useful model to understand aspects of human health such as metabolic processes/diabetes [13–15], proteomics [16, 17], and aging [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Newde novoassembly of the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) improves genome completeness and provides haplotype phasing

Martinez-Viaud

Lawley

Vergara³

et al. 2019

GigaScience

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High-quality genomes are essential to resolve challenges in breeding, comparative biology, medicine, and conservation planning. New library preparation techniques along with better assembly algorithms result in continued improvements in assemblies for non-model organisms, moving them toward reference-quality genomes. We report on the latest genome assembly of the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, leveraging Illumina sequencing data coupled with a combination of several library preparation techniques. These include Linked-Reads (Chromium, 10x Genomics), mate pairs (MP), long insert paired ends, and standard paired end. Data were assembled with the commercial DeNovoMAGIC assembly software, resulting in two assemblies, a traditional “haploid” assembly (Tur_tru_Illumina_hap_v1) that is a mosaic of the two parental haplotypes and a phased assembly (Tur_tru_Illumina_phased_v1) where each scaffold has sequence from a single homologous chromosome. We show that Tur_tru_Illumina_hap_v1 is more complete and more accurate compared to the current best reference based on the amount and composition of sequence, the consistency of the MP alignments to the assembled scaffolds, and on the analysis of conserved single-copy mammalian orthologs. The phased de novo assembly Tur_tru_Illumina_phased_v1 is the first publicly available for this species and provides the community with novel and accurate ways to explore the heterozygous nature of the dolphin genome.

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Dolphins and Diabetes: Applying One Health for Breakthrough Discoveries

Cited by 10 publications

References 19 publications

Adaptations of energy metabolism in cetaceans have consequences for their response to foraging disruption

Adaptations of energy metabolism in cetaceans have consequences for their response to foraging disruption

A 25-y longitudinal dolphin cohort supports that long-lived individuals in same environment exhibit variation in aging rates

Newde novoassembly of the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) improves genome completeness and provides haplotype phasing

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