BioEnv seminar: "Can silent DNA drive survival and Darwinian fitness?"

Short presentation

In 2009, the Nobel Prize was awarded research on molecular biology of the DNA-protein endpoints of chromosomes – telomeres – using protozoan and yeast models. Since then, most research on evolutionary telomere biology has been conducted on endotherms (with high, even body temperature) that largely lack telomere repair enzymes in bodily tissues, most likely because higher body temperature causes more DNA-mutations and the resulting cancer cells are made immortal by these enzymes (telomerase occurs in ‘all’ cancer tumors). Endotherms make up ca. 1 % of all living things on planet Earth and because of their lack of telomerase also show telomere shortening throughout life, linked to ageing, shorter lifespan and other disease. However, in the remaining 99% of all plant and animal species, with lower and more variable body temperature (ectotherms), telomerase is widespread and telomere dynamics (shortening and elongation) should be under selection to extend viability, lifespan and lifetime reproductive success (i.e., largely, Darwinian fitness). Is this the case? With 90% of published literature on endotherms, we simply don’t know, but this study is an attempt to redress the imbalance.