Longevity of lobsters is linked to ubiquitous telomerase expression

Abstract

Mammals have high growth rates in embryonic and juvenile phases and no growth in adult and senescent phases. We analyzed telomerase activity in a fundamentally different animal which grows indeterminately. Lobsters (Homarus americanus) grow throughout their life and the occurrence of senescence is slow. A modified TRAP assay was developed and the lobster telomeric repeat sequence TTAGG was determined. We detected telomerase activities which were dependent on RNA and protein components, required dGTP, dATP and dTTP, but not dCTP. Telomerase products with a five nucleotide periodicity were generated. High telomerase activities were detected in all lobster organs. We conclude that telomerase activation is a conserved mechanism for maintaining long-term cell proliferation capacity and preventing senescence, not only in cellular models or embryonic life stages but also in adult multicellular organisms.z 1998 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

Long telomeres are associated with clonality in wild populations of the fissiparous starfish Coscinasterias tenuispina

“…Although shorter telomeres were observed in the Atlantic populations characterized by a larger mean body size, our results did not detect any correlation between the two variables. This finding is consistent with the lack of age-related telomere shortening demonstrated for other marine species, including sea urchins and lobsters, and may be attributed to high phenotypic plasticity in body size and/or to continuous telomerase activity throughout their lifespan (Klapper et al, 1998;Ebert et al, 2008). Nevertheless, telomere length is regarded as an indicator of health and somatic fitness, and its variation observed in our populations may be influenced by both inherited and/or environmental components (Epel et al, 2004).…”

“…Our work represents the first study to explore the potential implications of asexual reproduction on relative telomere length in wild populations of a clonal starfish. To date, most ecological studies examining telomere length and/or telomerase activity have focused on obligate sexually reproducing species or clonal organisms maintained in laboratory cultures (see examples in Klapper et al, 1998;Horn et al, 2010;Ojimi and Hidaka, 2010;Sköld and Obst, 2011;Carney Almroth et al, 2012;Tan et al, 2012), and no previous study based on telomeres and aging has been conducted on wild clonal populations of any species.…”

Detection and distribution patterns of telomerase activity in insects

“…6). Combining this with a recent report of Klapper et al [27] on telomerase of lobster telomerase (Homarus americanus), the telomerase that synthesizes (TTAGG) n repeats appears to be widely conserved within Arthropod groups. The telomerase activities detected were dependent on protein and RNA components (Fig.…”

“…a; 3, Periplaneta f.; 4, Periplaneta a.; 5, Locusta m., Teleogryllus e., Diestrammena j.; 6, Teleogryllus t.; 7, Manica y., Apis m., Mymecia f.; 8, Bombyx m., Antheraea y., Samia c; 9, Agrius c., Papillio x.; 10, Bombyx m.; 11, Neoitamus a., Drosophila m., Tabanus, t.; 12, Drosophila m., Sarcophaga p. The present data on telomerase were shown in the right section. The telomerase activity in lobster (Homarus a .2 ) was reported in the [27]. The putative loss of telomerase function during insect evolution is indicated as the symbol of large X in the figure.…”

PKCμ prevents CD95-mediated apoptosis and enhances proliferation in pancreatic tumour cells

“…Telomerase activity was measured by a modified semiquantitative telomere repeat amplification assay (TRAP) as described previously (Klapper et al, 1998). Briefly, cells recovered from the cell culture were washed in PBS and approximately 5 Â 10 6 cells were resuspended in 50 ml CHAPS lysis buffer (0.5% CHAPS, 10 mm Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 1 mm MgCl 2 , 1 mm EGTA, 5 mm b-mercaptoethanol, 1 mm AEBSF, 1 U/ml RNAsin (Promega), 10% glycerol).…”