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Growing old, yet staying young: The role of telomeres in bats' exceptional longevity

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Foley, Nicole, M | Hughes, Graham, O | Huang, Zixia | Clarke, Michael | Jebb, David | Whelan, Conor, V | Petit, Eric | Touzalin, Frédéric | Farcy, Olivier | Jones, Gareth | Ransome, Roger, D | Kacprzyk, Joanna | O’connell, Mary | Kerth, Gerald | Rebelo, Hugo | Rodrigues, Luísa | Puechmaille, Sébastien | Teeling, Emma, C

Edité par CCSD ; American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) -

European Research Council Research [ERC-2012-StG311000]; Contrat Nature grant; German (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) [KE 746/2-1/3-1/4-1/5-1/6-1, GRK 2010]; Swiss (Schweizerische Nationalfonds) national science foundations [31-59556.99]; Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia [IF/00497/2013] This project was funded by a European Research Council Research Grant (ERC-2012-StG311000) awarded to E.C.T. The French field study is supported by a Contrat Nature grant awarded to Bretagne Vivante, G.K. was supported by the German (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; KE 746/2-1/3-1/4-1/5-1/6-1 and GRK 2010) and the Swiss (Schweizerische Nationalfonds; 31-59556.99) national science foundations. H. R. was funded by a Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia contract (IF/00497/2013).. International audience. Understanding aging is a grand challenge in biology. Exceptionally long-lived animals have mechanisms that underpin extreme longevity. Telomeres are protective nucleotide repeats on chromosome tips that shorten with cell division, potentially limiting life span. Bats are the longest-lived mammals for their size, but it is unknown whether their telomeres shorten. Using >60 years of cumulative mark-recapture field data, we show that telomeres shorten with age in Rhinolophus ferrumequinum and Miniopterus schreibersii, but not in the bat genus with greatest longevity, Myotis. As in humans, telomerase is not expressed in Myotis myotis blood or fibroblasts. Selection tests on telomere maintenance genes show that ATM and SETX, which repair and prevent DNA damage, potentially mediate telomere dynamics in Myotis bats. Twenty-one telomere maintenance genes are differentially expressed in Myotis, of which 14 are enriched for DNA repair, and 5 for alternative telomere-lengthening mechanisms. We demonstrate how telomeres, telomerase, and DNA repair genes have contributed to the evolution of exceptional longevity in Myotis bats, advancing our understanding of healthy aging.

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