Life Expectancy in Marine Mammals Is Unrelated to Telomere Length but Is Associated With Body Size

Buddhachat, Kittisak; Brown, Janine L.; Kaewkool, Manthanee; Poommouang, Anocha; Kaewmong, Patcharaporn; Kittiwattanawong, Kongkiat; Nganvongpanit, Korakot

doi:10.3389/fgene.2021.737860

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…In cetaceans, there is a positive correlation between lifespan and adult body length, and adult body weight so that as a rule the largest animals are usually also the oldest [39]. Our study revealed that this correlation is true also for male sperm whales from the Mediterranean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

Life History Traits of Sperm Whales Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758 Stranded along Italian Coasts (Cetartiodactyla: Physeteridae)

Maio

Fioravanti

Latini

et al. 2022

Animals

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We investigated the relationship between age and body length, and age at sexual maturity of Physeter macrocephalus individuals stranded along the Italian coast. Our molecular analysis shows that all our samples belong to the C.001.002 haplotype, shared between Atlantic and Mediterranean populations. We show that males attain sexual maturity at 10 years, similar to those from other marine areas. However, considering the same body length class, Mediterranean males are older than Atlantic ones. Our finding of a Mediterranean pregnant female of only 6.5 m in length and an assessed age of 24–26 years is particularly noteworthy, considering that females reach sexual maturity at about 9 years and 9 m of total length in other regions. Comparing our results with the literature data, we highlight the positive correlation between lifespan, adult body length and weight of males from the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean. Regardless of whether the relatively small size of Mediterranean specimens is a consequence of an inbreeding depression or an adaptation to less favorable trophic conditions, we recommend to closely monitor this population from a conservation perspective. In fact, its low genetic diversity likely corresponds to a relatively limited ability to respond to environmental changes compared with other populations.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

Life History Traits of Sperm Whales Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758 Stranded along Italian Coasts (Cetartiodactyla: Physeteridae)

Maio

Fioravanti

Latini

et al. 2022

Animals

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“…As such, they provide a powerful genetic model in which to assess the role of eroded telomeres in aging and cancer [37,38]. In marine animals, it is the body size of marine mammals, rather than telomere length, that dictates life expectancy [39]. In contrast, in some species, such as the wild Soay sheep, shorter average leukocyte telomeres are associated with an increased risk of early mortality [27,40,41].…”

Section: Telomeres In Aging and Stem Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tieing together loose ends: telomere instability in cancer and aging

2022

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Telomere maintenance is essential for maintaining genome integrity in both normal and cancer cells. Without functional telomeres, chromosomes lose their protective structure and undergo fusion and breakage events that drive further genome instability, including cell arrest or death. One means by which this loss can be overcome in stem cells and cancer cells is via re‐addition of G‐rich telomeric repeats by the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT). During aging of somatic tissues, however, insufficient telomerase expression leads to a proliferative arrest called replicative senescence, which is triggered when telomeres reach a critically short threshold that induces a DNA damage response. Cancer cells express telomerase but do not entirely escape telomere instability as they often possess short telomeres; hence there is often selection for genetic alterations in the TERT promoter that result in increased telomerase expression. In this review, we discuss our current understanding of the consequences of telomere instability in cancer and aging, and outline the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in exploiting the reliance of cells on telomere maintenance for preserving genome stability.

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Gut microbiota of captive common bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus gilli: influence of age, sex, birthplace, and contacts with dolphinarium visitors

Popov,

Suvorova,

Krikunova

et al. 2024

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Dolphins are aquatic mammals, whose role in microbial ecology is not fully understood. It is critical to study the microbiota of dolphins kept in captivity, as close contact with humans could unpredictably affect both human and animal health. In this study, we investigated the gut microbiota of 15 captive common bottlenose dolphins, and the relationship of microbial diversity and composition with animals’ age, sex, birthplace (dolphinarium or wildlife), and direct contacts with dolphinarium visitors using high-throughput V3-V4 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Based on acquired sequencing data we calculated and compared alpha and beta diversity indexes, as well as conducted differential abundance analysis of identified bacterial taxa to find multivariable associations with dolphins’ age period, sex, birthplace, and type of contact with humans with linear models. There was no association between gut microbiota composition and diversity and dolphins’ age period, sex, and birthplace. However, there were significant differences (q-value ≤ 0.00018) in the relative abundance of Edwardsiella genus in dolphins that were in contact only with dolphinarium staff in comparison to dolphins that apart from dolphinarium staff also had contact with dolphinarium visitors. These results show that dolphins born in wildlife and dolphinariums do not have significant differences in gut microbiota composition and the microbiota of captive dolphins can be affected by their contact with humans.

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Life Expectancy in Marine Mammals Is Unrelated to Telomere Length but Is Associated With Body Size

Cited by 3 publications

References 55 publications

Life History Traits of Sperm Whales Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758 Stranded along Italian Coasts (Cetartiodactyla: Physeteridae)

Life History Traits of Sperm Whales Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758 Stranded along Italian Coasts (Cetartiodactyla: Physeteridae)

Tieing together loose ends: telomere instability in cancer and aging

Gut microbiota of captive common bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus gilli: influence of age, sex, birthplace, and contacts with dolphinarium visitors

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