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The Journal of Heredity

Blood gene activity differed widely by sex in painted turtles

Gene activity differed between female and male turtles for 2,347 genes, or 13.4% of those analyzed.

Paper by Samantha L Bock, Luke A Hoekstra, Kelsi Hagerty, +5 more authorsAnne M Bronikowski · Michigan State University
Turtle blood cells with clustered or scattered dark flecks sit between a smaller dark blue-green turtle and a larger gray turtle.

Our read

Mechanisms
Studied:
Cross-sectional study of 93 wild adult painted turtles, against male turtles
What changed:
Blood gene activity differed between female and male turtles for 2,347 genes, or 13.4% of all filtered genes
The catch:
The contribution of sex-related gene activity to longer female lifespans was not measured

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper
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In 93 wild adult painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) spanning the entire lifespan, researchers studied how blood gene activity varied with sex, age and their interaction. Long-term tracking of this species had recorded lifespans of 24 years in males and 48 years in females.

The gene-expression study found widespread differences between females and males. By contrast, only six genes showed a linear relationship—a straight-line trend—between activity and age in both sexes. A machine-learning method, which learned patterns from the data, also identified distinct genes in each sex whose activity predicted age. The age-related patterns included biological pathways already known to have roles in aging, as well as new gene targets.

Why it matters

Painted turtles’ sex depends on temperature rather than sex chromosomes. The authors suggest that sex-specific molecular processes may contribute to differences in aging in this species.

Caveats

The blood measurements could not distinguish gene activity that contributed to females’ longer lives from activity that simply differed between the sexes.

Where the evidence stands

Insulin/IGF-1 signaling

Worms or flies: replicated by independent labs. Cells, mice and humans: a single group.

C, W, M, H: cells, worms or flies, mice, humans. Dark: independent labs found the same change there. Light: one lab or one study. Outline: nothing yet.

Labs are independent when their papers share no last author and no institution.

Against: findings that point the other way from most findings on the same outcome.

Company ties: findings with an author at a company, or from a paper whose competing-interests statement declares ties to one.

Includes the processes named after it and trials of drugs aimed at it.

  • 105 independent labs in 28 countries
  • 5 findings against
  • Funders: National Institutes of Health and others
  • 8 of 155 findings with company ties

mTOR signaling

Cells, worms or flies, mice and humans: replicated by independent labs.

C, W, M, H: cells, worms or flies, mice, humans. Dark: independent labs found the same change there. Light: one lab or one study. Outline: nothing yet.

Labs are independent when their papers share no last author and no institution.

Against: findings that point the other way from most findings on the same outcome.

No results posted: trials that ended over a year ago with no results on ClinicalTrials.gov and no paper reporting them.

Company ties: findings with an author at a company, or from a paper whose competing-interests statement declares ties to one.

Includes the processes named after it and trials of drugs aimed at it.

  • 273 independent labs in 41 countries
  • 22 findings against
  • 107 trials, 28 with no results posted
  • Funders: National Institutes of Health and others
  • 46 of 602 findings with company ties
  • 102 of 107 trials sponsored by developers of drugs aimed at it

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