Mitochondria as central characters in a complex narrative: Linking genomics, energetics, and pace-of-life in natural populations of garter snakes.

Mitochondria as central characters in a complex narrative: Linking genomics, energetics, and pace-of-life in natural populations of garter snakes. Exp Gerontol. 2020 May 05;:110967 Authors: Gangloff EJ, Schwartz TS, Klabacka R, Huebschman N, Liu AY, Bronikowski AM Abstract As a pacesetter for physiological processes, variation in metabolic rate can determine the shape of energetic trade-offs and thereby drive variation in life-history traits. In turn, such variation in metabolic performance and life-histories can have profound consequences for lifespan and lifetime fitness. Thus, the extent to which metabolic rate variation is due to phenotypic plasticity or fixed genetic differences among individuals or populations is likely to be shaped by natural selection. Here, we first present a generalized framework describing the central role of mitochondria in processes linking environmental, genomic, physiological, and aging variation. We then present a test of these relationships in an exemplary system: populations of garter snakes (Thamnophis elegans) exhibiting contrasting life-history strategies - fast-growing, early-reproducing, and fast-aging (FA) versus slow-growing, late-reproducing, and slow-aging (SA). Previous work has characterized divergences in mitochondrial function, reactive oxygen species processing, and whole-organism metabolic rate between these divergent life-history ecotypes. Here, we report new data on cellular respira...
Source: Experimental Gerontology - Category: Geriatrics Authors: Tags: Exp Gerontol Source Type: research