Date of Award
5-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Department
Biology
First Advisor
Dr. Stephen Ferguson
Second Advisor
Dr. Priscilla Erikson
Abstract
When eukaryotes replicate cells throughout their life, the end regions of chromosomes naturally degrade as a result of the 5' to 3' directionality of DNA polymerase. There is a point when the chromosome is too damaged to provide normal cellular functions, so the cell will die. Telomeres act as a buffer by providing repetitive sequences of non-coding nucleotides. While telomeres do shorten during replication events, the enzyme telomerase can extend telomeres to prevent senescence. Telomere lengths vary between individuals based on different stressor and stress mitigation. Telomeric rate of change is a metric that can capture telomerase activity by measuring how telomeres change over time. During evolution, organisms adapt variable trade-offs of traits . These trade-offs optimize reproductive success and survival. The ways in which organisms manage these different traits can provide valuable insight into their evolutionary history. Some organisms have traits that can be categorized as a slow pace-of-life strategy, in which metabolic rates are lower, fewer offspring are produced, and lifespans are longer. On the contrary, fast pace-of-life species have higher metabolic rates, produce more offspring, .and have shorter lifespans. In this paper, I conduct a metaanalysis where I show how telomere dynamics of avian families can be attributed to different pace of life strategies. I also show the importance of using telomeric rate of change, instead of static telomere lengths when comparing pace of life traits. I found that while telomeres tend to decrease with age, this is not true for every species. Telomeric rate of change, however, does show significant trends with pace of life traits such as maximum lifespan. This suggests that dynamic metrics such as telomeric rate of change better predict how organisms age.
Recommended Citation
Konigsberg, Benjamin, "A Cross-Taxa Comparison of Avian Telomere Dynamics, Age, and Lifespan" (2025). Honors Theses. 1831.
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/honors-theses/1831
