Biology subjects

Compton, Z.

Publications and source records attributed to Compton, Z..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Sleep and gestation duration are correlated, but not with cancer risk or prevalence across vertebrates

Cancer prevalence varies across species, with traits such as litter/clutch size, gestation duration, carnivory, and adult mass, partly explaining this variation. Yet no coherent explanation exists for why shorter gestation and carnivory both correlate with cancer prevalence or risk. Given that carnivores sleep more than herbivores, sleep reportedly being a compensation for brain immaturity after gestation, longer sleep appearing in species with shorter gestation, and shorter gestation in species with higher cancer prevalence, we hypothesize that sleep may mediate the gestation-cancer association. We obtained neoplasia prevalence, cancer prevalence, cancer mortality risk (n [≥] 20 individuals/species), gestation duration, and sleep duration data across vertebrates. We tested whether sleep duration mediates the known gestation-cancer prevalence association, whether sleep duration is directly correlated with neoplasia/cancer prevalence or risk, and tested the known gestation-sleep duration association using more vertebrate species and phylogenetic generalized least squares analyses. Gestation and sleep duration were not correlated with neoplasia prevalence, cancer prevalence, or cancer mortality risk. Gestation and sleep duration were negatively correlated. These results highlight the complexity of understanding how multiple physiology variables explain the variation in cancer prevalence or risk across vertebrates, and the need to verify previously known associations with more powerful and robust statistical tools.

Cancer Biology↗

bioRxiv2023

Life history and cancer in birds: clutch size predicts cancer

Cancer is a disease that affects nearly all multicellular life, including birds. However, little is known about what factors explain the variance in cancer prevalence among species. Litter size is positively correlated with cancer prevalence in managed species of mammals, and larger body size, but not incubation or nestling period, is linked to tumor prevalence in wild birds. Also, birds that produce more elaborate sexual traits are expected to have fewer resources for cancer defenses and thus higher cancer prevalence. In this study, we examined whether cancer prevalence is associated with a wide variety of life history traits (clutch size, incubation length, body mass, lifespan, and the extent of sexual dimorphism) across 108 species of managed birds in 25 different zoological facilities, sanctuaries, and veterinary clinics. We found that clutch size was positively correlated with cancer and neoplasia (both benign and malignant) prevalence, even after controlling for body mass. Cancer prevalence was not associated with incubation length, body mass, lifespan, or sexual dimorphism. The positive correlations of clutch size with cancer prevalence and neoplasia prevalence suggest that there may be life-history trade-offs between reproductive investment and somatic maintenance (in the form of cancer prevention mechanisms) in managed birds.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2022

The ecology of cancer prevalence across species: Cancer prevalence is highest in desert species and high trophic levels

The ecology in which species live and evolve likely affects their health and vulnerability to diseases including cancer. Using 14,267 necropsy records across 244 vertebrate species, we tested if animals in low productivity habitats, with large habitat range, high body temperature and weight-inferred estimates of metabolic rates, and in high trophic levels (from lowest to highest: herbivores, invertivores, primary carnivores, and secondary carnivores) are linked with having increased prevalence of neoplasia. This study found that: (1) habitat productivity negatively correlated with the prevalence of malignancy and neoplasia across tissues, and malignancy and neoplasia in gastrointestinal tissues; (2) inferred metabolic rates negatively correlated with the prevalence of neoplasia; and (3) trophic levels positively correlated with malignancy and neoplasia prevalence in both mammals and non-mammals. However, only the correlations with trophic levels remained significant after Bonferroni corrections for multiple testing. There are several mechanisms that might explain these findings, including the biomagnification of carcinogens in higher trophic levels, as well as tradeoffs between cancer suppression versus reproduction and survival in low productivity environments.

cancer biology↗