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Longevity; Aging marker; Arctica islandica; Oxidation; Cellular maintenance
Abstract:
One of the biggest challenges to studying
causes and effects of aging is identifying changes in
cells that are related to senescence instead of simply
the passing of chronological time. We investigated two
populations of the longest living non-colonial metazoan,
Arctica islandica, with lifespans that differed sixfolds.
Of four investigated parameters (nucleic acid oxidation,
protein oxidation, lipid oxidation, and protein instability),
only nucleic acid oxidation increased with age and
correlated with relative lifespan. Nucleic acid oxidation
levels increased significantly faster and were significantly
higher in the shorter-lived than the longer-lived
population. In contrast, neither protein oxidation, lipid oxidation, nor protein stability changed over time.
Protein resistance to unfolding stress when treated with
urea was significantly lower overall in the shorter-lived
population, and lipid peroxidation levels were higher in
the longer-lived population. With the exception of
nucleic acid oxidation, damage levels of A. islandica
do not change with age, indicating excellent cellular
maintenance in both populations. Since correlations between
nucleic acid oxidation and age have also been
shown previously in other organisms, and nucleic acid
oxidation accumulation rate correlates with relative age
in both investigated populations, nucleic acid oxidation
may reflect intrinsic aging mechanisms.
