Age‐dependent expression of cancer‐related genes in a long‐lived seabird

• Published in: Evolutionary Applications
• Main Authors: Meitern, Richard, Fort, Jérôme, Giraudeau, Mathieu, Rattiste, Kalev, Sild, Elin, Sepp, Tuul
• Other Authors: Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences Tartu, University of Tartu, LIttoral ENvironnement et Sociétés (LIENSs), La Rochelle Université (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre de Recherches Ecologiques et Evolutives sur le Cancer (MIVEGEC-CREEC), Processus Écologiques et Évolutifs au sein des Communautés (PEEC), Génétique et évolution des maladies infectieuses (GEMI), Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud )-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud )-Génétique et évolution des maladies infectieuses (GEMI), Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud )-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud ), Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (IAES), Estonian University of Life Sciences (EMU)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2020
• Subjects: cancer defenses; gene expression; Larus canus; senescence; transcriptome; wild animals; [SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio]
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-02971707; https://hal.science/hal-02971707/document; https://hal.science/hal-02971707/file/eva.13024%20%281%29.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.13024

International audience Studies of model animals like mice and rats have led to great advances in our understanding of the process of tumorigenesis, but this line of study has less to offer for understanding the mechanisms of cancer resistance. Increasing the diversity of nonmodel species from the perspective of molecular mechanisms of natural cancer resistance can lead to new insights into the evolution of protective mechanisms against neoplastic processes and to a wider understanding of natural cancer defense mechanisms. Such knowledge could then eventually be harnessed for the development of human cancer therapies. We suggest here that seabirds are promising, albeit currently completely ignored candidates for studying cancer defense mechanisms, as they have a longer maximum life span than expected from their body size and rates of energy metabolism and may have thus evolved mechanisms to limit neoplasia progression, especially at older ages. We here apply a novel, intraspecific approachof comparing old and young seabirds for improving our understanding of aging and neoplastic processes in natural settings. We used the long-lived common gulls (Larus canus) for studying the age-related pattern of expression of cancer-related genes, based on transcriptome analysis and databases of orthologues of human cancer genes. The analysis of differently expressed cancer-related genes between young and old gulls indicated that similarly to humans, age is potentially affecting cancer risk in this species. Out of eleven differentially expressed cancer-related genes between the groups, three were likely artifactually linked to cancer. The remaining eight were downregulated in old gulls compared to young ones. The downregulation of five of them could be interpreted as a mechanism suppressing neoplasia risk and three as increasing the risk. Based on these results, we suggest that old gulls differ from young ones both from the aspect of cancer susceptibility and tumor suppression atthe genetic level.