Fish from urban rivers and with high pollutant levels have shorter telomeres

Abstract

Environmental pressures, such as urbanization and exposure to pollutants may jeopardize survival of free-living animals. Yet, much remains to be known about physiological and ecological responses to currently-released pollutants, especially in wild vertebrate ectotherms. We tested the effect of urbanization and pollution (phthalates, organochlorine and pyrethroid pesticides, polychlorobiphenyls, polybromodiphenylethers, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and some of their metabolites) on telomere length, a suggested biomarker of life expectancy, in the European chub, Squalius cephalus , from urban and agricultural rivers of the Marne hydrographic network, France. We showed that telomere length was reduced in chub from urban rivers. Moreover, among the wide range of anthropogenic contaminants investigated, high levels of phthalate metabolites in liver were associated with shorter telomeres. This study suggests that urbanization and chemical pollution may compromise survival of wild fish, by accelerating telomere attrition.

Telomeres in a spatial context: a tool for understanding ageing pattern variation in wild populations

“…These studies have mostly covered a relatively small spatial scale, and in contrast to the research conducted on endotherms, only one study has assessed the impact of urbanisation on ectotherm telomeres. Molbert et al (2021) compared telomere length of European chub Squalius cephalus from urban and agricultural rivers and found a negative effect of urbanisation on telomere length. In a different study, juvenile brown trout Salmo trutta telomere length from 10 natural Estonian populations negatively correlates with past river water temperature and individual body size (Debes et al 2016), which suggests a role of past thermal stress on telomere attrition.…”

Individual Differences in Relative Telomere Length in Mentally Healthy Subjects: The Effect of TERT Gene Polymorphism and Urban Residency

“…A negative impact of urbanization and related environmental pollution has been demonstrated on both human body and other living objects. For instance, the study of a link between the concentration of several xenobiotics (phthalates, organochlorine and pyrethroid pesticides, polychlorobiphenyls, polybromodiphenyl esters, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and their metabolites) and telomere length in European chub ( Squalius cephalus ) reported a negative correlation between the level of phthalate metabolites and the length of telomere repeats, as well as dwelling in the hydrographic network of urban reservoirs [ 29 ].…”

Telomere dynamics in female Columbian ground squirrels: recovery after emergence and loss after reproduction

“…For instance, environmental harshness (e.g. pollution levels, disease prevalence, oxidative stress, environmental and social stressors; reviewed by Chatelain, Drobniak, & Szulkin, 2020) has been shown to negatively affect telomere length in groups as diverse as fish (Molbert et al, 2021), birds (Asghar et al, 2015;Aydinonat et al, 2014;Grunst et al, 2020), and mammals (Kesäniemi et al, 2019), including humans (Blackburn & Epel, 2012). As data grow, so does our understanding of the importance of these highly conserved DNA structures in shaping lifehistory trade-offs and tactics across species (Dantzer & Fletcher, 2015;Young, 2018).…”