Telomeres and Telomerase

Gomes, Nuno; Shay, Jerry W.

doi:10.1007/978-90-481-3465-6_11

Cited by 14 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 120 publications

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“…The magnitude of telomere loss with each round of cell division is greater than would be expected to occur simply as a consequence of the end replication problem (Takai et al, 2003;Lansdorp, 2005). Because telomeric DNA is much more susceptible to oxidative damage than non-telomeric DNA, at least partly due to the high guanine content and reduced repair capacity in the telomeric regions (Gomes et al, 2010), redox balance in the cell is thought to be an important factor influencing telomere loss rate (Passos et al, 2007;Houben et al, 2008). A relatively high proportion of oxidative damage occurs in the telomeric DNA, demonstrated in vivo and in vitro, which will increase shortening rates (Shalev, 2012).…”

Section: Telomeres and Longevitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Organismal stress, telomeres and life histories

Monaghan

2014

Journal of Experimental Biology

199

203

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Most organisms, including ourselves, are exposed to environmental stressors at various points during life, and responses to such stressors have been optimised by evolution to give the best fitness outcomes. It is expected that environmental change will substantially increase long-term stress exposure in many animal groups in the coming decades. A major challenge for biologists is to understand and predict how this will influence individuals, populations and ecosystems, and over what time scale such effects will occur. This requires a multi-disciplinary approach, combining studies of mechanisms with studies of fitness consequences for individuals and their descendants. In this review, I discuss the positive and negative fitness consequences of responses to stressful environments, particularly during early life, and with an emphasis on studies in birds. As many of the mechanisms underlying stress responses are highly conserved across the vertebrate groups, the findings from these studies have general applicability when interpreted in a life history context. One important route that has recently been identified whereby chronic stress exposure can affect health and longevity over long time frames is via effects on telomere dynamics. Much of this work has so far been done on humans, and is correlational in nature, but studies on other taxa, and experimental work, are increasing. I summarise the relevant aspects of vertebrate telomere biology and critically appraise our current knowledge with a view to pointing out important future research directions for our understanding of how stress exposure influences life histories.

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Section: Telomeres and Longevitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This supports the hypothesis that tumour protection is important. However, this is clearly not the whole story as many long-lived ectotherms have high telomerase activity in somatic tissues (Gomes et al, 2010).…”

Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organismal stress, telomeres and life histories

Monaghan

2014

Journal of Experimental Biology

199

203

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“…The telomeric system of chromosome protection is highly conserved across eukaryotes, acting to maintain the integrity of the linear chromosomes. Vertebrate telomeres comprise tandem repeats of a short hexameric DNA sequence (TTAGGG) at the chromosome ends, with a single-stranded overhang that doubles back on itself and intrudes into the double-stranded section, forming the so-called 't-loop' [4]. The telomere itself is protected by the shelterin proteins, which prevent it being accessed by cellular mechanisms that repair breaks in DNA and which could otherwise give rise to catastrophic end-to-end joining of chromosomes [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Somatic growth and telomere dynamics in vertebrates: relationships, mechanisms and consequences

Monaghan

Ozanne

2018

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

188

287

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Much telomere loss takes place during the period of most rapid growth when cell proliferation and potentially energy expenditure are high. Fast growth is linked to reduced longevity. Therefore, the effects of somatic cell proliferation on telomere loss and cell senescence might play a significant role in driving the growth-lifespan trade-off. While different species will have evolved a growth strategy that maximizes lifetime fitness, environmental conditions encountered during periods of growth will influence individual optima. In this review, we first discuss the routes by which altered cellular conditions could influence telomere loss in vertebrates, with a focus on oxidative stress in both and studies. We discuss the relationship between body growth and telomere length, and evaluate the empirical evidence that this relationship is generally negative. We further discuss the potentially conflicting hypotheses that arise when other factors are taken into account, and the further work that needs to be undertaken to disentangle confounding variables.This article is part of the theme issue 'Understanding diversity in telomere dynamics'.

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“…Many operational principles of this system are shared across a wide range of eukaryote species, indicative of its ancient origins. Telomere DNA generally comprises a string of a repeated, short, non-coding sequence, which is often G rich, such as TTAGGG [2]. The proximal end of the telomeric tract is double stranded, and the distal end terminates in a single-stranded overhang of the G-rich strand.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%