Exposure to oxychlordane is associated with shorter telomeres in arctic breeding kittiwakes

Pierre Blévin (1) , Frédéric Angelier (1) , Sabrina Tartu (1) , Stéphanie Ruault (1) , Paco Bustamante (2) , Dorte Herzke (3) , Børge Moe (4) , Claus Bech (5) , Geir W Gabrielsen (6) , Jan Ove Bustnes (4) , Olivier Chastel (1)

1 CEBC - Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé - UMR 7372
2 LIENSs - LIttoral ENvironnement et Sociétés
3 NILU - Norwegian Institute for Air Research
4 NINA - Norwegian Institute for Nature Research
5 NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology [Trondheim]
6 NPRI - Norvegian Polar Research Institute

Telomeres are DNA-protein complexes located at the end of chromosomes, which play an important role in maintaining the genomic integrity. Telomeres shorten at each cell division and previous studies have shown that telomere length is related to health and lifespan and can be affected by a wide range of environmental factors. Among them, some persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have the potential to damage DNA. However, the effect of POPs on telomeres is poorly known for wildlife. Here, we investigated the relationships between some legacy POPs (organochlorine pesticides and polychlorobiphenyls) and telomere length in breeding adult blacklegged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla), an arctic seabird species. Our results show that among legacy POPs, only blood concentration of oxychlordane, the major metabolite of chlordane mixture, is associated with shorter telomere length in females but not in males. This suggests that female kittiwakes could be more sensitive to oxychlordane, potentially explaining the previously reported lower survival rate in most oxychlordane contaminated kittiwakes from the same population. This study is the first to report a significant and negative relationship between POPs and telomere length in a free-living bird and highlights sex-related susceptibility to banned pesticides.

Mots clés: Svalbard; Seabirds; PCBs; DNA; Contaminants Organochlorines

Domaines: Ecotoxicologie

Pierre Blévin, Frédéric Angelier, Sabrina Tartu, Stéphanie Ruault, Paco Bustamante, et al.. Exposure to oxychlordane is associated with shorter telomeres in arctic breeding kittiwakes. Science of the Total Environment, 2016, 563, pp.125 - 130. ⟨10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.04.096⟩. ⟨hal-01413650⟩