https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/381/1963
This was a lot so I have asked chatGPT(5.5) for a short summary of each artice all of which are open source.
Developmental circuits in ageing
The November 2026 issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B contains 21 contributions. I’ve summarised all 21 in issue order. The invertebrate rejuvenation review was the only article absent from the uploads, so its entry draws on the editors’ account. sfbvie.fr Theme issue
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Ageing and development: two processes, one history (Gilson, Teeling and Garinis, introduction)
The editors argue that the way organs are built shapes how they age and how damage spreads between them. Their synthesis identifies two windows for intervention, one during development and another later in life, when signals that transmit damage between organs might be interrupted. Article · rstb.2025.0322.pdf -
Ageing begins early: developmental origins of ageing trajectories (Moldakozhayev et al., review)
The authors review evidence that molecular estimates of biological age fall after fertilisation and reach a minimum around gastrulation. Their contribution is to connect this proposed embryonic age reset with evidence that prenatal and postnatal conditions shape later disease risk, metabolism and longevity. Article · rstb.2025.0326.pdf -
Development, stabilization and the shaping of ageing trajectories (Ricchetti, review)
Ricchetti proposes that the shift from developmental plasticity to stable specialisation creates vulnerabilities that emerge with age. The brain illustrates the trade-off. Its long-lived architecture supports specialised functions while leaving relatively little scope for cell replacement and repair. Article · rstb.2025.0331.pdf -
Rejuvenation in invertebrates and their relevance for ageing biology (Wurtz, Amiel and Röttinger, review)
The review surveys natural rejuvenation across comb jellies, cnidarians, flatworms, annelids and nematodes. Its distinctive contribution is how to test apparent age reversal when an animal returns to an earlier body form, using molecular, cellular and physiological measures and, where possible, function or lifespan. Article · rstb.2025.0322.pdf -
Setting the lifespan clock: anti-ageing interventions during development (Hao and Tian, opinion)
Brief exposures such as mitochondrial stress, dietary restriction or rapamycin can have lasting effects in model organisms. The authors propose that short windows of developmental plasticity allow these interventions to reprogramme metabolism and stress responses, sometimes at a cost to growth or fertility. Article · rstb.2025.0343.pdf -
When genomes burn: how DNA damage ignites inflammation and fuels ageing (Theodorakis and Garinis, review)
The paper brings together evidence for a self-reinforcing loop between DNA damage and inflammation. One example links RNA polymerase II stalling to the release of telomeric DNA fragments that can induce senescence in neighbouring cells. Inflammatory stress can then inflict further genomic damage. Article · rstb.2025.0337.pdf -
A role for p16-high immune cells in disease tolerance as a crucial defence strategy (Triana-Martinez and Bulavin, review)
Drawing mainly on mouse studies, the authors argue that some p16-high macrophages and T cells help limit tissue injury during severe inflammation. The distinctive proposal is that these senescence-like immune states contribute to disease tolerance, the ability to withstand injury at a given pathogen burden. Article · rstb.2025.0323.pdf -
Inflammaging as a dynamic process in ageing (Ali et al., review)
The authors propose four inflammatory states, from adaptive and compensatory responses through maladaptive inflammation to a self-sustaining state. The novel element is a proposed window in which maladaptive inflammation may still be reversible, with senescent-cell clearance and tissue-specific feedback influencing the transition. Article · rstb.2026.0155.pdf -
Non-canonical telomere repeat-binding factor 2 control of retinal development (Gao et al., original research)
Zebrafish with one working copy of the TRF2 gene had abnormal Müller glia and altered expression of light-response genes despite having no detectable increase in DNA damage. Restoring TRF2 specifically in glia rescued their structure, supporting a dosage-sensitive role for TRF2 in retinal development. Article · rstb.2025.0339.pdf -
Mosaic ageing: from organ-specific decline to the cause of death (Burraco and Boonekamp, review)
Organs within the same individual can age at different rates and influence one another. The review proposes using organ-specific clocks, imaging and longitudinal data to test which organ declines first, which others it affects, and how that sequence shapes disease and cause of death. Article · rstb.2025.0335.pdf -
Organ communication in ageing (Allavena, Técher and Ferreira, opinion)
The authors propose experiments that distinguish the initiating lesion, the signal that carries its effects, and the response in the receiving organ. Prior work restoring telomerase specifically in the zebrafish gut illustrates how an intervention confined to one organ can improve distant tissues. Article · rstb.2025.0333.pdf -
Developmental epigenetic circuits and their epigenetic drift in skeletal muscle ageing (Schaeffer, Afanaseva and Belotti, review)
Muscle stem cells reuse developmental chromatin programmes during repair, including acetyl-CoA-dependent histone acetylation. The authors propose that drift in the chromatin architecture established during development erodes transcriptional fidelity in long-lived muscle fibres and contributes to declining muscle function. Article · rstb.2025.0342.pdf -
Female-specific anti-ageing effects of TRF2 inhibition in skeletal myofibres (Gilson et al., original research)
Deleting Terf2 in skeletal muscle fibres early in life preserved aspects of muscle function in female mice and increased their median lifespan by three months, or 11%. Telomeric damage markers were comparable to controls. The authors propose an adaptive response to mild mitochondrial stress as a possible explanation. Article · rstb.2025.0336.pdf -
Reactivating young muscle regenerative pathways through 15-PGDH inhibition (Nalbandian and Blau, review)
The enzyme 15-PGDH rises with age and breaks down prostaglandin E2, a signal needed for muscle repair. The review brings together earlier evidence of gains in muscle mass and strength with newer findings that inhibition can restore nerve–muscle connections in old mice. Human efficacy remains open. Article · rstb.2026.0156.pdf -
Sex and population mediate the fast growth–short telomere association in wild herbivores (Remot et al., original research)
Alongside a synthesis of 46 studies, the authors compared wild Soay sheep and roe deer. Faster growth was associated with shorter telomeres in male sheep, and heavier fawns had shorter telomeres in the higher-quality roe deer habitat. The novelty is showing how sex and habitat change the apparent cost of early growth. Article · rstb.2025.0334.pdf -
Developmental processes in ageing: the role of growth regulation (Viegas and de Magalhães, review)
The authors revive Bidder’s hypothesis that the mechanisms that stop growth at maturity may remain active until tissue renewal falls below tissue loss. Their contribution is to turn an old hypothesis into testable predictions about whether restoring controlled growth can prevent age-related atrophy. Article · rstb.2025.0329.pdf -
Early-life reproductive success predicts lifespan in a short-lived vertebrate (Cattelan and Valenzano, original research)
In repeated fertilisation assays, male turquoise killifish whose embryos survived better when the fathers were young also tended to live longer. Early reproductive performance predicted lifespan. A model in which both outcomes reflect underlying individual condition reproduced the pattern, leaving that shared cause to be tested directly. Article · rstb.2025.0324.pdf -
A phenotype-based ageing clock in a wild mammal (Barnard et al., original research)
Teeth and body measurements predicted age in wild Soay sheep, especially before advanced adulthood. The surprising result was that adults scored as older for their age were more likely to survive winter. The association lost statistical significance after adjustment for body weight, suggesting the clock largely captured development and body condition. Article · rstb.2025.0327.pdf -
Early-life telomere length variation in long-lived bats (Lonergan et al., original research)
Using 10 years of data for one species and five for another, the authors identified developmental periods when weather was associated with juvenile telomere length. Rainfall mattered in both species, while temperature patterns differed. Juvenile telomere measures showed no clear association with first-year survival. Article · rstb.2025.0338.pdf -
Cooperative care slows offspring telomere attrition in a wild Kalahari bird (Capilla-Lasheras et al., original research)
White-browed sparrow-weaver nestlings with more non-breeding helpers grew faster and lost telomere length more slowly. The growth advantage was strongest in dry conditions. The field study links cooperative care to both a marker of cellular maintenance and resilience to variable rainfall. Article · rstb.2025.0325.pdf -
Disentangling the paradox of inbreeding and telomere dynamics (Pepke and Limborg, review and meta-analysis)
Across 37 studies, domesticated or captive strains tended to have longer telomeres, while more inbred individuals within natural populations tended to have shorter ones. Separating those two study designs suggests domestication or artificial selection may explain some of the apparent paradox. The pooled estimate for individual inbreeding was imprecise. Article · rstb.2026.0110.pdf