When I learned that the oldest known living animal, a 250 year old Aldabra tortoise (geochelon gignatea) residing at the Calcutta, India zoo, had died, I wondered if anyone had studied tortoise telomeres to learn the secrets of their delayed senescence. I didn’t find a study specific to tortoises, but my search uncovered a reptile study right in my own back yard, as it were.
A group of researchers from Iowa State University, Drake University and Des Moines University studied the
“HAYFLICK LIMIT IN REPTILES, A TEST OF POTENTIAL IMMORTALITY”,specific to several turtle, snake and reptile species indigenous to Iowa. Their most interesting finding came from snapping turtle tissue:
“Our cultures of fibroblasts from snapping turtles appear to be immortal and untransformed having exceeded 190 cpds with no indication of senescence…Our analysis of the snapping turtle tissues indicates almost no telomerase except in the gonad where it is almost always present. Obviously the telomere is being maintained by some other mechanism.”
They conclude that reptiles may reveal mechanisms that have implications for longevity and maintenance of tissue repair.
I can’t determine the date the abstract was published. The latest citations are from 1998. I wonder if anyone has read or heard of similar studies?
In the meantime, may Addwaita’s venerable telomeres rest in peace.