Figure 4

Figure 4

Telomere length shortens with age in both heart and brain and correlates with stress reactivity in the heart, but not brain, of zebrafish. (a) Relative telomere length ratios calculated by qPCR for heart tissue grouped by age, sex and stress reactivity (N = 31). Age and stress reactivity in aging zebrafish have a signficant effect on telomere length in heart tissue. (b) Relative telomere length ratios for brain grouped by age, sex and stress reactivity (N = 32). Only age has a significant effect. Box plots indicate median values (middle lines), first and third quartiles (box edges) and minimum and maximum values (whiskers). YFL young female low stress reactivity, YFH young female high stress reactivity, YML young male low stress reactivity, YMH young male high stress reactivity, AFL aging female low stress reactivity, AFH aging female high stress reactivity, AML aging male low stress reactivity, AMH aging male high stress reactivity. **p-value < 0.01; ***p-value < 0.001.