Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, PO Box 11103, 9700 CC Groningen, The Netherlands
Institute of Avian Research, An der Vogelwarte 21, D-26386 Wilhelmshaven, Germany.
J Exp Biol. 2018 Aug 10;221(Pt 15):jeb181586. doi: 10.1242/jeb.181586.
High growth rate is associated with a short lifespan, but the physiological basis for this trade-off is not well known. Telomere length predicts individual lifespan and in this study we investigated whether embryonic growth rate, manipulated using incubation temperature, affects erythrocyte telomere length in a wild bird species, the common tern (). A 1°C lower incubation temperature decreased growth rate by 5%, without affecting size at hatching. The slower growth was associated with an average telomere length that was 147 base pairs longer at hatching. If carried through to adulthood, this effect would correspond with an approximately 3 year longer lifespan. Our results thus suggest that an effect of growth rate on lifespan may be mediated by telomere dynamics or a physiological process reflected by telomere length.
高生长率与短寿命相关，但这种权衡的生理基础尚不清楚。端粒长度可以预测个体寿命，在这项研究中，我们调查了使用孵化温度来操纵的胚胎生长率是否会影响野生鸟类普通燕鸥（）的红细胞端粒长度。较低的 1°C 孵化温度会使生长速度降低 5%，而不会影响孵化时的大小。较慢的生长速度与孵化时端粒长度平均增加 147 个碱基有关。如果延续到成年，这一效应将对应于寿命延长约 3 年。因此，我们的研究结果表明，生长率对寿命的影响可能是通过端粒动力学或由端粒长度反映的生理过程来介导的。
