Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 116, Issue 30, Pages 15122-15127Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1902452116
Keywords
telomere; life span; species
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Funding
- Ministerio Economia, Industria y Competividad [CGL2016-80963-R]
- Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Projects [SAF2013-45111-R, SAF2015-72455-EXP]
- Comunidad de Madrid Project [S2017/BMD-3770]
- World Cancer Research Project [16-1177]
- Fundacion Botin (Spain)
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Telomere shortening to a critical length can trigger aging and shorter life spans in mice and humans by a mechanism that involves induction of a persistent DNA damage response at chromosome ends and loss of cellular viability. However, whether telomere length is a universal determinant of species longevity is not known. To determine whether telomere shortening can be a single parameter to predict species longevities, here we measured in parallel the telomere length of a wide variety of species (birds and mammals) with very different life spans and body sizes, including mouse (Mus musculus), goat (Capra hircus), Audouin's gull (Larus audouinii), reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus), bottle-nose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber), and Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus). We found that the telomere shortening rate, but not the initial telomere length alone, is a powerful predictor of species life span. These results support the notion that critical telomere shortening and the consequent onset of telomeric DNA damage and cellular senescence are a general determinant of species life span.
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