Hidden costs of infection: Chronic malaria accelerates telomere degradation and senescence in wild birds

Author:

Asghar M.12,Hasselquist D.1,Hansson B.1,Zehtindjiev P.3,Westerdahl H.1,Bensch S.1

Affiliation:

1. Department of Biology, Lund University, Ecology Building, 223 62 Lund, Sweden.

2. Infectious Disease Unit, Department of Medicine Solna, Karolinska Institute, 17176 Stockholm, Sweden.

3. Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 2 Gagarin Street, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria.

Abstract

Chronic malaria shortens telomeres Chronic infections are assumed to cause little damage to the host, but is this true? Migrant birds can pick up various species of malaria parasite while overwintering in the tropics. After initial acute malaria, migrant great reed warblers, which nest in Sweden and overwinter in Africa, are asymptomatically infected for life. Asghar et al. discovered that these cryptically infected birds laid fewer eggs and were less successful at rearing healthy offspring than uninfected birds. Furthermore, infected birds had significantly shorter telomeres (the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes) and produced chicks with shortened telomeres. Science , this issue p. 436

Funder

Swedish Research Council

Higher Education Commission of Pakistan

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Subject

Multidisciplinary

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3