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Lipofuscin accumulation in tissues of Arctica islandica indicates faster ageing in populations from brackish environments

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Abstract

Environmental factors can affect the rate of ageing and shape the lifespan in marine ectotherms. The mechanisms and the degree of environmental influence on aging can best be studied in species with wide ranging biogeographic distribution. One of the biomarkers of physiological ageing is the fluorescent age pigment lipofuscin, which accumulates over lifetime in tissues of bivalves. We compared lipofuscin accumulation rate in muscles and respiratory tissues of the extremely long-lived bivalve Arctica islandica from five geographically distinct populations (Northern Norway, White Sea, Kiel Bay, German Bight and Iceland). Maximum investigated chronological age across different populations in the present study differed from 40 years in Kiel Bay to 192 years at Iceland. An inverse association between lipofuscin deposition rate and recorded maximum age was observed through inter-population comparisons. In most cases lipofuscin accumulated exponentially over age in a tissue-specific manner. The age-specific lipofuscin content was significantly higher in respiratory than muscles tissues in all populations. Cellular lipofuscin granule area can be used as indicator of aging across A. islandica populations with the variance in granule accumulation depending on the annual variations of salinity in different marine regions, but not on the habitat-specific thermal envelope.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the staff of histological laboratory of Angela Koehler (AWI, Bremerhaven, Germany) who kindly provided support for lipofuscin measurements. Thanks to Katja Broeg and Sieglinde Bahns for their help with the lipofuscin analysis. We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their positive input which allowed us to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Murmansk Marine Biological Institute KSC RAS, 17 Vladimirskaya street, Murmansk, 183010, Russia

    Larisa Basova

  2. Saint-Petersburg State University, St Petersburg, Russia

    Larisa Basova & Alexey Sukhotin

  3. Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Julia Strahl

  4. Institute for Clinical Molecular Biology, Kiel, Germany

    Eva E. R. Philipp

  5. Alfred-Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Thomas Brey & Doris Abele

  6. Zoological Institute RAS, St Petersburg, Russia

    Alexey Sukhotin

Authors
  1. Larisa Basova
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  2. Julia Strahl
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  3. Eva E. R. Philipp
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  4. Thomas Brey
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  5. Alexey Sukhotin
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  6. Doris Abele
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Larisa Basova.

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Funding

This work was supported by grants from the German Academic Exchange Service (A/05/56588, A/07/72522 to L.B.); Federal Ministry of Education and Research International Office (RUS-07/A11 to L.B.); Saint-Petersburg State University (1.38.253.2014, 1.42.1493.2015 and 1.42.1099.2016 to L.B.) and Russian Foundation for Basic Research (14-04-00466 to L.B. and A.S.).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

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Responsible Editor: J. H. Stillman.

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Basova, L., Strahl, J., Philipp, E.E.R. et al. Lipofuscin accumulation in tissues of Arctica islandica indicates faster ageing in populations from brackish environments. Mar Biol 164, 72 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-017-3110-4

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