Abstract
Telomere shortening has been used as an indicator of aging and is believed to accelerate under harsh environmental conditions. This can be attributed to the fact that telomere shortening has often been regarded as non-reversible and negatively impacting fitness. However, studies of laboratory mice indicate that they may be able to repair telomere loss to recover from environmental harshness, as indicated by recent studies in hibernating rodents. We studied seasonal variation in telomere dynamics in African striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio) living in a highly seasonal environment. In our annual species, individuals born in the moist spring (high food availability) need to survive the harsh dry summer (low food availability) to be able to reproduce in the following spring. We studied the effect of the harsh dry vs. the benign moist season on telomere dynamics. We also tested if telomere length or the rate of change in telomere length over the dry season predicted the probablity of dissapearance from the population at the same time. Male, but not female, stripped mice showed age-related telomere erosion. Telomeres were longer at the beginning of the dry season compared to the rest of the year. Telomeres increased significantly in length during the moist season. Neither telomere length at the onset of the dry season nor telomere loss over the dry season predicted whether or not individuals disappeared. In conclusion, our data suggest that seasonal attrition and restoring of telomeres also occurs in non-hibernating wild rodents living in hot food restricted environments.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Succulent Karoo Research Station, the University of the Witwatersrand, and the CNRS. We are grateful to Goegap Nature Reserve and for the help of several field managers and assistants. Data are available online at figshare https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13160405.v1.
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CS, NP and FC originally formulated the idea of the manuscript, FC and CS run the telomere analysis, FC and CS wrote the manuscript, NP contributed to writing, FC and CS made tables and prepared figures.
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Communicated by Pawel Koteja.
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Criscuolo, F., Pillay, N., Zahn, S. et al. Seasonal variation in telomere dynamics in African striped mice. Oecologia 194, 609–620 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04801-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04801-x