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Oxidative stress and Ageing in Animals under Thermal Stress due to Global Warming: A Perspective

Biswaranjan Paital

The world is projected to experience an approximate doubling of atmospheric CO2 concentration coming decades. Increase in CO2 level as one of the most important reasons may contribute to raise the mean global temperature by 1.4-5.8°C. Exposure of animals to thermal stress many times is accompanied with acceleration of certain unwanted biochemical pathways in animals. One of such examples is elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) and subsequent increase in oxidation of lipids, proteins and nucleic acids by ROS. Increase in oxidation of biomolecules leads to a state called as oxidative stress (OS). OS hampers physiology of animals. Exposure of animals to rise in habitat temperature may also boost animal’s metabolism and a positive correlation exists between metabolism and levels of ROS and OS. Continuous induction of OS is negatively correlated with survivability, longevity and positively correlated with ageing in animals. Thus, it can be predicted that continuous exposure of animals to acute or gradual rise in habitat temperature due to global warming is supposed to induce OS and the reduced survibility and longevity in animals. Attribution global warming to longevity of animals through increase in risk of disease susceptibility via OS also cannot be ignored.