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What are the mechanisms determining the rate of animal aging? Of the two major classes of endothermic animals, bird species are strikingly long-lived compared to mammals of similar body size and metabolic rate. Thus, they are ideal models to identify longevity-related characteristics not linked to body size or low metabolic rates. Since oxidative stress seems to be related to the basic aging process,...
Songbirds perform some remarkable feats of memory, including forming memories for songs and for complex spatial features of their environments. Research into the neural and hormonal control of these behaviors reveals discrete circuits that can retain considerable plasticity in adulthood. The songbird brain is also a prominent site of estrogen synthesis and a target of estrogen action. Estrogens contribute...
On behalf of American Aging Association and his many biogerontological colleagues, the author thanks Huber R. Warner for his 21 years of exemplary service at the National Institute on Aging (NIA). In so honoring Dr. Warner, we also honor his many associates at that “user friendly” branch of the National Institutes of Health. Some highlights of Dr. Warner's scientific training, academic career and...
Immunosenescence, the aging of the immune system, is well studied in humans. Mammalian immune systems become less capable of fighting pathogens and individuals become more susceptible to infection and cancer in their elder years. Little is currently published on avian immunosenescence even though avian immune function has been well characterized and birds have been critical models in the study of...
The Common Tern (Sterno hirundo) is a long-lived colonial nesting seabird. Previous studies have shown that chick growth and fledging success vary with age of the parental pair and with laying date, with older parents and those nesting earlier being more successful. This study investigated the dependence of breeding performance and one aspect of behavior, defense against conspecifics, on age and laying...
Telomerase is the specialized enzyme which replicates the telomeres, thus maintaining the integrity of the chromosome ends; in absence of enzyme activity telomere lengths decrease, ultimately impacting genome stability. In this study, we examined the mRNA expression of both enzyme components, the RNA template (TR) and catalytic subunit (TERT) during growth and development of the chicken to better...
The first 10 years of NIA's existence were characterized by funding for descriptive and discovery research, as the field had not yet come of age. As Couzin expressed it in the July 1, 2005 issue of Science, “Just 2 or 3 decades ago, research on aging was a backwater” (Couzin J 2005 How much can human life span be extended. Science 309: 83). With the isolation of long-lived animal mutants and the application...
A. P. Moller, F. de Lope and N. Saino: Reproduction and migration in relation to senescence in the barn swallow Hirundo rustica: A study of avian ‘centenarians’. Senescence reflects the decrease in age-dependent residual reproductive value, and a previous study of a cohort of migratory barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) that had reached advanced ages for this species (at least five years old) provided...
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