Telomeres are favoured targets of a persistent DNA damage response in ageing and stress-induced senescence

Graeme Hewitt, Diana Jurk, Francisco D.M. Marques, Clara Correia-Melo, Timothy Hardy, Agata Gackowska, Rhys Anderson, Morgan Taschuk, Jelena Mann and João F. Passos ()
Additional contact information
Graeme Hewitt: Ageing Research Laboratories, Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle University
Diana Jurk: Ageing Research Laboratories, Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle University
Francisco D.M. Marques: Ageing Research Laboratories, Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle University
Clara Correia-Melo: Ageing Research Laboratories, Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle University
Timothy Hardy: Institute of Cellular Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, 4th Floor, William Leech Building, Newcastle University
Agata Gackowska: Institute of Cellular Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, 4th Floor, William Leech Building, Newcastle University
Rhys Anderson: Ageing Research Laboratories, Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle University
Morgan Taschuk: Ageing Research Laboratories, Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle University
Jelena Mann: Institute of Cellular Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, 4th Floor, William Leech Building, Newcastle University
João F. Passos: Ageing Research Laboratories, Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle University

Nature Communications, 2012, vol. 3, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Telomeres are specialized nucleoprotein structures, which protect chromosome ends and have been implicated in the ageing process. Telomere shortening has been shown to contribute to a persistent DNA damage response (DDR) during replicative senescence, the irreversible loss of division potential of somatic cells. Similarly, persistent DDR foci can be found in stress-induced senescence, although their nature is not understood. Here we show, using immuno-fluorescent in situ hybridization and ChIP, that up to half of the DNA damage foci in stress-induced senescence are located at telomeres irrespective of telomerase activity. Moreover, live-cell imaging experiments reveal that all persistent foci are associated with telomeres. Finally, we report an age-dependent increase in frequencies of telomere-associated foci in gut and liver of mice, occurring irrespectively of telomere length. We conclude that telomeres are important targets for stress in vitro and in vivo and this has important consequences for the ageing process.

Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1708 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:3:y:2012:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1708

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1708

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().