Lives of Mice: Why?

Lives of Mice

I wonder why, despite mice having longer telomeres than humans, they have a significantly shorter life span. Of course, telomere shortening is not necessarily a main factor to aging and lifespan, but it is still of course an important factor. Perhaps humans have more telomerase than mice do. Perhaps the size of the creature, and at what rate the cells divide at, could be possible factors. I assume that a mouse’s cells may be smaller than a person’s, which I assume means that the cells must divide faster. I think this because a smaller cell doesn’t need to build up as much mass before it reaches its dividing point, unlike a larger cell. Because the cells are dividing quicker, the telomeres shorten much faster than a human’s, so if this is the case then it would make sense that the telomeres are much longer. Once again, of course telomeres are not the dictators of someone’s lifespan, it is a combination of factors.

If was wrong about anything I would love to be corrected. Much of this was based more on my logical assumption (which is not very logical) than fact. Obviously, the things I simply thought of have the words perhaps, if, or assume. This was more of talk than something you should use on a science report.

Telomeres: Repeating sequences on the ends of chromosomes. They prevent DNA from being removed when the strands are being copied.

Telomerase: They copy the ends on DNA, preventing them from getting shorter.