{"cache":{"posts_f30bc_5b964":{"__typename":"RootQueryToPostConnection","nodes":[{"__typename":"Post","id":"cG9zdDoxODM2MA==","databaseId":18360,"featuredImage":null,"author":null,"date":"2013-05-30T08:43:42","uri":"/articles/getting-long-in-the-telomeres","title_b28e9_bf21a":"Getting Long in the Telomeres","slug":"getting-long-in-the-telomeres","categories_3cd3e_bf21a":{"__typename":"PostToCategoryConnection","edges":[{"__typename":"PostToCategoryConnectionEdge","node":{"__typename":"Category","id":"dGVybToxNTQx","name":"Health + Traits","slug":"health-traits","uri":"/category/health-traits","seo":{"__typename":"TaxonomySEO","title":"Health + Traits Archives - 23andMe Blog","opengraphTitle":"Health + Traits Archives","metaDesc":"23andMe's Health + Ancestry Service gives you personalized genetic insights and tools that can help make it easier for you to take action on your health.","opengraphDescription":"23andMe's Health + Ancestry Service gives you personalized genetic insights and tools that can help make it easier for you to take action on your health.","fullHead":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"}}}]},"imageOptions":{"__typename":"Post_Imageoptions","featuredImageSquare":{"__typename":"MediaItem","id":"cG9zdDoxNzM5Mw==","mediaDetails":{"__typename":"MediaDetails","sizes_cad4b_bf21a":[{"__typename":"MediaSize","name":"thumbnail","sourceUrl":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Telomere_caps-150x150.gif"},{"__typename":"MediaSize","name":"medium","sourceUrl":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Telomere_caps-300x236.gif"},{"__typename":"MediaSize","name":"square_sm","sourceUrl":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Telomere_caps-271x271.gif"},{"__typename":"MediaSize","name":"square_md","sourceUrl":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Telomere_caps-372x372.gif"},{"__typename":"MediaSize","name":"square_lg","sourceUrl":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Telomere_caps-574x471.gif"},{"__typename":"MediaSize","name":"wide_sm","sourceUrl":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Telomere_caps-271x149.gif"},{"__typename":"MediaSize","name":"wide_md","sourceUrl":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Telomere_caps-372x204.gif"},{"__typename":"MediaSize","name":"wide_lg","sourceUrl":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Telomere_caps-574x315.gif"}],"height":471,"width":600},"mediaItemUrl":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Telomere_caps.gif","sourceUrl_772ce_bf21a":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Telomere_caps.gif"},"singleTemplateFeaturedImage":"default"},"content_b28e9_bf21a":"

Robin Smith, Health Content Scientist

Some scientists believe that lobsters could live virtually forever, barring injury, disease, or capture. They are among a select group of animals, including tortoises, clams, and jellyfish, that are “negligibly senescent.”

$\"\"$

They don’t age much. So why aren’t we so lucky?

Consider the Lobster

Unlike lobsters, our cells cannot replicate and renew themselves throughout our lives. One cause of this limitation is our telomeres, which are DNA segments at the ends of our chromosomes that get shorter with each replication.

When a cell’s telomeres get too short, it can no longer replicate and eventually dies. A few cells—namely adult stem cells, sperm, and egg cells—are not limited by this process, though. These cells have a telomerase enzyme that can rebuild telomeres when they get too short. This process is hijacked by cancer cells, which become effectively immortal by turning on telomerase.

Telomeres and Aging

There are several indications that telomere length is a good predictor of longevity. In newborns, telomere length varies from about 8,000-13,000 “base pairs” (DNA letters) in length and declines by about 20-40 base pairs each year. Telomeres are also longer in women than men, mirroring the difference in lifespan between the sexes. In elderly twins, the twin with shorter telomeres is roughly three times more likely to die first.

The variability in telomere length between people of the same age is not random and has a genetic component that has interested scientists for decades. In a recent study in the Nature Genetics journal, scientists identified multiple markers associated with either shorter or longer telomeres.

The strongest of these resides near a gene named TERC. Each copy of a “T” at this position is associated with an average 117 base pair decrease in telomere length, equivalent to having the “biological age” of a person about four years older.

Other Factors in Aging

A person’s genetic makeup is not the only determinant of telomere length; environmental factors such as smoking and obesity bring about premature telomere shortening.

Telomere length is also highly influenced by the father’s age at conception. Because sperm cells are one of only a few types of cells that maintain or even increase their telomere length over time, the trend is for older fathers to have children with longer telomeres.

This effect can even carry over to a second generation, including grandchildren. It’s interesting to speculate that trends in some societies towards delaying parenthood may have the unexpected benefit of boosting life expectancy. Any such benefit, however, would have to be weighed against the known risks of being an older dad.

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$\"\"$

The candles on your birthday cake tell you how many years you’ve lived through, but they might not be a reflection of your biological age.

Little bits of DNA called telomeres protect the ends of chromosomes. Over time, through repeated rounds of cell division, telomeres get shorter and shorter. Thus, telomere length is a marker of biological aging. Research recently published in the journal Nature Genetics that found a common DNA variation associated with telomere length suggests that some people are genetically programmed to age at a faster rate.

Researchers from the University of Leicester and King’s College London analyzed the DNA of more than 12,000 Europeans. They found that each copy of the less common G version of the SNP was associated with about a 75 base pair reduction in average telomere length. This is equivalent to about 3.6 years of biological aging as measured by telomere length loss.

This finding could have important implications because biological aging isn’t just a matter of wrinkles and aching joints. Shorter telomeres have been linked with age-associated conditions such as heart disease and certain types of cancer. But that’s not to say that people with variants that predict shorter telomeres should give up on doing all they can to keep young.

“Genetically susceptible people may age even faster when exposed to proven ‘bad’ environments for telomeres like smoking, obesity or lack of exercise–and end up several years biologically older and succumbing to more age-related disease,” said one of the study’s senior authors, Tim Spector of King’s College London, in a press release.

A previous Blog post about telomeres can be found here.
You may have heard about telomeres in the news recently: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009 was awarded jointly to Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak “for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.”

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$\"\"$ MrPumpernickel / www.instructables.com

The daily rigors of tying and untying would soon render our shoelaces frayed and useless if it weren’t for those protective plastic aglets on the ends. Roughly the same situation exists for the chromosomes in your cells. Without protective pieces of DNA on their ends called “telomeres”, repeated rounds of DNA copying would lead to chromosomal breakdown.

The cellular machinery that replicates DNA before cells divide isn’t able to make it to the very end of chromosomes. If it weren’t for the disposable buffer created by the thousands of repetitive DNA base pairs that make up telomeres, critical bits of genetic information would be lost with every cell division.

This protection only can last only so long, however. After 50 or so generations, a cell’s telomeres get so short that they can no longer maintain the genome’s integrity, signaling the end of the line for the cell.

Studies have shown that the “normal” telomere length varies from person to person, but is genetically influenced . In the August 15 issue of Human Molecular Genetics, Massimo Mangino and his colleagues from the University of Leicester identify a gene variant that could play a role in determining telomere length among people with European ancestry.

The researchers found that people with the C version of rs2630578 have telomeres in their white blood cells that are between 400 and 800 base pairs shorter than people with two copies of the other version of this SNP. The authors estimate that this is the equivalent of having cells that are comparatively about 15 to 20 years older, though no actual effects on aging or health were associated with this SNP in the study.

The variant lies in the BICD1 gene, which is part of a cellular pathway regulating protein movements throughout the cell. Studies in yeast have found associations between transport genes like BICD1 and shorter telomeres, but this is the first time such a link has been seen in human studies.

Mangino and his colleagues found that the C version of rs2630578 decreased the amount of BICD1 protein made by cells, which they theorize might affect telomere length. Having either one or two Cs at this SNP seemed to have about the same effect on BICD1 levels, indicating that having two copies of this SNP version might not be any worse than having only one.

As the first study to associate a SNP with telomere length, further work is needed to confirm these findings – and to see if the same SNP might be involved in conditions where shorter telomeres are known to be a factor, such as premature aging syndromes and cancer.

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telomere

Getting Long in the Telomeres

Researchers Identify Variation Associated with Biological Aging

A Genetic Variation Associated with Telomere Length

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