Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Biomedical & Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2010 Sep;1206:130-42. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2010.05705.x.
Telomeres are repetitive DNA sequences at the ends of eukaryote chromosomes. Telomere loss limits the number of times cells can divide and is intimately involved in cell loss and renewal. Average telomere length in cell samples generally declines with donor age but shows substantial intraspecific variation. Telomeres are potentially of great interest to evolutionary biologists since the balance of fitness costs and benefits associated with loss and restoration is linked to the biology of life span. Most telomere research is done in the context of human disease. Recently, however, there has been a burgeoning of interest in telomere dynamics in healthy organisms. The extent to which variation in telomere loss might be involved in the evolution of life histories, and constrain or underpin life history trade-offs, is a growing field of research. I discuss what we do and do not know about the links between telomere length and life histories and the extent to which variations in telomere length and loss rate are useful indicators of aging-related changes and/or the biological state of individuals.
端粒是真核生物染色体末端的重复 DNA 序列。端粒丢失限制了细胞分裂的次数，与细胞丢失和更新密切相关。细胞样本中的平均端粒长度通常随供体年龄的增长而下降，但具有很大的种内变异性。端粒对进化生物学家来说具有很大的研究意义，因为与损失和恢复相关的适应成本和收益的平衡与寿命生物学有关。大多数端粒研究都是在人类疾病的背景下进行的。然而，最近人们对健康生物体中端粒动力学的兴趣日益浓厚。端粒损失的变化在多大程度上与生命史的进化有关，以及限制或支持生命史的权衡，是一个不断发展的研究领域。我讨论了我们对端粒长度与生命史之间的联系以及端粒长度和损失率的变化在多大程度上是衰老相关变化和/或个体生物学状态的有用指标的了解程度。
