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Age-related cellular changes in the long-lived bivalve A. islandica

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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.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Prof. Philip Rosenstiel and the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology in Kiel as well as the Excellence Clusters Future Ocean and Inflammation of Interfaces and the Max Planck International Research Network on Aging for financial support. We are also grateful to H. P. Halldorson at the Suðurnes University Research Centre, Sandgerði, Iceland, and the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany, for the support and possibility to collect Arctica islandica in the Baltic Sea and around Iceland. Additionally we want to thank the anonymous reviewer who gave inspiring comments that helped to improve our manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Author notes

  1. Steven N. Austad

    Present address: Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1720 2nd Avenue South, Birmingham, AL, 35294-1170, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Biology, August-Thienemann Str. 2, 24306, Plön, Germany

    Heike Gruber & Primrose Boynton

  2. ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and School of Pharmacy and Molecular Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia

    Wiebke Wessels

  3. Department of Aging & Geriatric Research, University of Florida, 2004 Mowry Road, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA

    Jinze Xu & Christiaan Leeuwenburgh

  4. Department of Animal Sciences, College of Agriculture and Life Science/IFAS, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Stephanie Wohlgemuth

  5. UT Health Science Center San Antonio, Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, 15355 Lambda Drive, San Antonio, TX, 78245, USA

    Wenbo Qi & Steven N. Austad

  6. Max-Planck-Institute for Demographic Research, Konrad-Zuse-Str. 1, 18057, Rostock, Germany

    Ralf Schaible

  7. Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology, University Hospital Schleswig Holstein, Schittenhelmstr. 12, 24105, Kiel, Germany

    Eva E. R. Philipp

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  1. Heike Gruber
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Correspondence to Heike Gruber.

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Gruber, H., Wessels, W., Boynton, P. et al. Age-related cellular changes in the long-lived bivalve A. islandica . AGE 37, 90 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-015-9831-8

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