Dataset Information

Patterns of telomere length with age in African mole-rats: New insights from quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridisation (qFISH).

ABSTRACT: Naked mole-rats Heterocephalus glaber (NMRs) are the longest-lived rodent and also resist the normal signs of senescence. In a number of species, cellular ageing has been correlated with a reduction in telomere length, yet relatively little is known about telomeres and their age-related dynamics in NMRs and other African mole-rats. Here, we apply fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) to quantify telomeric repeat sequences in the NMR, the Damaraland mole-rat, Fukomys damarensis (DMR) and the Mahali mole-rat, Cryptomys hottentotus mahali (MMR). Both terminal and non-terminal telomeric sequences were identified in chromosomes of the NMR and DMR, whilst the MMR displayed only terminal telomeric repeats. Measurements of tooth wear and eruption patterns in wild caught DMRs and MMRs, and known ages in captive bred NMRs, were used to place individuals into relative age classes and compared with a quantitative measure of telomeric fluorescence (as a proxy for telomere size). While NMRs and MMRs failed to show an age-related decline in telomeric fluorescence, the DMR had a significant decrease in fluorescence with age, suggesting a decrease in telomere size in older animals. Our results suggest that among African mole-rats there is variation between species with respect to the role of telomere shortening in ageing, and the replicative theory of cellular senescence.

SUBMITTER: Leonida SRL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7720729 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Patterns of telomere length with age in African mole-rats: New insights from quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridisation (qFISH).

Leonida Stephanie R L SRL Bennett Nigel C NC Leitch Andrew R AR Faulkes Chris G CG

PeerJ 20201204

Naked mole-rats <i>Heterocephalus glaber</i> (NMRs) are the longest-lived rodent and also resist the normal signs of senescence. In a number of species, cellular ageing has been correlated with a reduction in telomere length, yet relatively little is known about telomeres and their age-related dynamics in NMRs and other African mole-rats. Here, we apply fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) to quantify telomeric repeat sequences in the NMR, the Damaraland mole-rat, <i>Fukomys damarensis</i> ...[more]

PMID: 33335813

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Project description:The Bathyergidae, commonly known as blesmols or African mole-rats, is a family of rodents well-known for their subterranean lifestyle and tunnelling behaviour. Four of the five extant bathyergid genera (Cryptomys, Fukomys, Georychus and Heliophobius) are chisel-tooth diggers, that is they dig through soil with their enlarged incisors, whereas the remaining genus (Bathyergus) is a scratch-digger, only using its forelimbs for burrowing. Heterocephalus glaber, the naked mole-rat, is also a chisel-tooth digger and was until recently included within the Bathyergidae (as the most basally branching genus), but has now been placed by some researchers into its own family, the Heterocephalidae. Given the importance of the masticatory apparatus in habitat construction in this group, knowledge and understanding of the morphology and arrangement of the jaw-closing muscles in Bathyergidae is vital for future functional analyses. Here, we use diffusible iodine-based contrast-enhanced microCT to reveal and describe the muscles of mastication in representative specimens of each genus of bathyergid mole-rat and to compare them to the previously described musculature of the naked mole-rat. In all bathyergids, as in all rodents, the masseter muscle is the most dominant component of the masticatory musculature. However, the temporalis is also a relatively large muscle, a condition normally associated with sciuromorphous rodents. Unlike their hystricomorphous relatives, the bathyergids do not show an extension of the masseter through the infraorbital foramen on to the rostrum (other than a very slight protrusion in Cryptomys and Fukomys). Thus, morphologically, bathyergids are protrogomorphous, although this is thought to be secondarily derived rather than retained from ancestral rodents. Overall, the relative proportions of the jaw-closing muscles were found to be fairly consistent between genera except in Bathyergus, which was found to have an enlarged superficial masseter and relatively smaller pterygoid muscles. It is concluded that these differences may be a reflection of the behaviour of Bathyergus which, uniquely in the family, does not use its incisors for digging.

Dataset Information

Patterns of telomere length with age in African mole-rats: New insights from quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridisation (qFISH).

Publications

Patterns of telomere length with age in African mole-rats: New insights from quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridisation (qFISH).

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