Brown, T.J., Spurgin, L.G., Dugdale, H.L. et al. (3 more authors) (2022) Causes and consequences of telomere lengthening in a wild vertebrate population. Molecular Ecology, 31 (23). pp. 5933-5945. ISSN 0962-1083
Abstract
Telomeres have been advocated to be important markers of biological age in evolutionary and ecological studies. Telomeres usually shorten with age and shortening is frequently associated with environmental stressors and increased subsequent mortality. Telomere lengthening – an apparent increase in telomere length between repeated samples from the same individual – also occurs. However, the exact circumstances, and consequences, of telomere lengthening are poorly understood. Using longitudinal data from the Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis), we tested whether telomere lengthening – which occurs in adults of this species – is associated with specific stressors (reproductive effort, food availability, malarial infection and cooperative breeding) and predicts subsequent survival. In females, telomere shortening was observed under greater stress (i.e., low food availability, malaria infection), while telomere lengthening was observed in females experiencing lower stress (i.e., high food availability, assisted by helpers, without malaria). The telomere dynamics of males were not associated with the key stressors tested. These results indicate that, at least for females, telomere lengthening occurs in circumstances more conducive to self-maintenance. Importantly, both females and males with lengthened telomeres had improved subsequent survival relative to individuals that displayed unchanged, or shortened, telomeres – indicating that telomere lengthening is associated with individual fitness. These results demonstrate that telomere dynamics are bidirectionally responsive to the level of stress that an individual faces, but may poorly reflect the accumulation of stress over an individuals lifetime.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Authors. Molecular Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | ageing; biomarkers; life-history; senescence; stress; telomeres; vertebrates; wild populations |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Natural Environment Research Council NE/I021748/1; NE/B504106/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 19 Nov 2021 10:05 |
Last Modified: | 24 Jun 2024 14:01 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/mec.16059 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:180645 |