Environmental stresses disrupt telomere length homeostasis
Open accessAbstract
Telomeres protect the chromosome ends from degradation and play crucial roles in cellular aging and disease. Recent studies have additionally found a correlation between psychological stress, telomere length, and health outcome in humans. However, studies have not yet explored the causal relationship between stress and telomere length, or the molecular mechanisms underlying that relationship. Using yeast as a model organism, we show that stresses may have very different outcomes: alcohol and acetic acid elongate telomeres, whereas caffeine and high temperatures shorten telomeres. Additional treatments, such as oxidative stress, show no effect. By combining genome-wide expression measurements with a systematic genetic screen, we identify the Rap1/Rif1 pathway as the central mediator of the telomeric response to environmental signals. These results demonstrate that telomere length can be manipulated, and that a carefully regulated homeostasis may become markedly deregulated in opposing directions in response to different environmental cues.
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There is preliminary evidence that statins, certain hormones, and caffeine may impact LTL.
“For example, there is preliminary evidence that statins (Olivieri et al., 2012), certain hormones (Lin et al., 2011), and caffeine (Romano et al., 2013) may impact LTL.”
From Psychiatric disorders and leukocyte telomere length: Underlying mechanisms linking mental illness with cellular aging (2015) · cites this paper as Romano et al., 2013
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References 59 · Cited by 107
- Authors
- Romano, G. H., Harari, Y., Yehuda, T., Podhorzer, A., Rubinstein, L., Shamir, R., Gottlieb, A., Silberberg, Y., Pe'er, D., Ruppin, E., Sharan, R., & Kupiec, M.
- Affiliations
- Tel Aviv University (IL)
- Corresponding author
- Kupiec, Martin
- Venue
- PLoS Genetics
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2013-09-05
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- e1003721
- ISSN
- 1553-7390 (ISSN-L)
- 1553-7404
- PMC
- PMC3764183
- OpenAlex
- W2002628931
- Cited by
- 107
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 7.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- PLoS Genetics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Columbia Academic Commons (Columbia University)
- Funders
- Israel Cancer Research Fund
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Telomeres, Telomerase, and Senescence
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Aging › Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Fungal and yeast genetics research
- Keywords
- telomere length, telomere homeostasis, environmental stress, yeast, alcohol chemistry, acetic acid, caffeine, heat stress, oxidative stress, telomere elongation, telomere shortening, genome-wide expression, genetic screen, cellular aging
- MeSH terms
- Shelterin Complex, Alcohols, Homeostasis, Humans, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Stress, Physiological, Transcription Factors, Chromosomes, Fungal, Telomere, Oxidative Stress, Acetic Acid, Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins, Telomere-Binding Proteins, Telomere Homeostasis, Gene-Environment Interaction
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