No evidence for parental age effects on offspring leukocyte telomere length in free-living Soay sheep

Froy, Hannah; Bird, Ellen J.; Wilbourn, Rachael V.; Fairlie, Jennifer; Underwood, Sarah; Salvo-Chirnside, Eliane; Pilkington, Jill G.; Bérénos, Camillo; Pemberton, Josephine M.; Nussey, Daniel H.

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-09861-3

Cited by 28 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…The same is the case with parental age and chick TL-while the relationship between paternal age and the TL of offspring is well established in humans, in animals there seems to be much more variation (Arbeev et al, 2011;Asghar, Bensch, Tarka, Hansson, & Hasselquist, 2015;Broer et al, 2013;De Meyer et al, 2007;Eisenberg, Hayes, & Kuzawa, 2012;Ferlin et al, 2013;Froy et al, 2017;Kimura et al, 2008;Nawrot, Staessen, Gardner, & Aviv, 2004;Olsson et al, 2011;Prescott, Du, Wong, Han, & De Vivo, 2012;Unryn, Cook, & Riabowol, 2005). It is possible that the lack of a clear pattern arises because most predictors have been studied in isolation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

The environmental and genetic determinants of chick telomere length in Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor)

Belmaker

Hallinger

Glynn

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Conditions during early life can have dramatic effects on adult characteristics and fitness. However, we still know little about the mechanisms that mediate these relationships. Telomere shortening is one possibility. Telomeres are long sequences of DNA that protect the ends of chromosomes. They shorten naturally throughout an individual's life, and individuals with short telomeres tend to have poorer health and reduced survival. Given this connection between telomere length (TL) and fitness, natural selection should favor individuals that are able to retain longer telomeres for a greater portion of their lives. However, the ability of natural selection to act on TL depends on the extent to which genetic and environmental factors influence TL. In this study, we experimentally enlarged broods of Tree Swallows ( Tachycineta bicolor ) to test the effects of demanding early‐life conditions on TL, while simultaneously cross‐fostering chicks to estimate heritable genetic influences on TL. In addition, we estimated the effects of parental age and chick sex on chick TL. We found that TL is highly heritable in Tree Swallow chicks, and that the maternal genetic basis for TL is stronger than is the paternal genetic basis. In contrast, the experimental manipulation of brood size had only a weak effect on chick TL, suggesting that the role of environmental factors in influencing TL early in life is limited. There was no effect of chick sex or parental age on chick TL. While these results are consistent with those reported in some studies, they are in conflict with others. These disparate conclusions might be attributable to the inherent complexity of telomere dynamics playing out differently in different populations or to study‐specific variation in the age at which subjects were measured.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

The environmental and genetic determinants of chick telomere length in Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor)

Belmaker

Hallinger

Glynn

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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“…We would therefore expect that species with high levels of sperm competition and high rates of sperm production, such as in polygynandrous species, should show the strongest PAC effect. PAC effects are often confounded with maternal age at conception (MAC), as these are typically highly correlated in human populations (Table 1 in Froy et al, 2017). The presence of MAC effects in humans is generally considered to be due to the correlation with PAC instead of a true independent biological effect (de Meyer et al, 2007;Kimura et al, 2008), because oocytes are produced prenatally, while sperm is produced throughout life (Eisenberg & Kuzawa, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of environmental and genetic contributions to telomere length variation in a wild mammal

Lieshout¹,

Sparks²,

Bretman³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Understanding individual variation in fitness-related traits requires separating the environmental and genetic determinants. Telomeres are protective caps at the ends of chromosomes that are thought to be a biomarker of senescence as their length predicts mortality risk and reflect the physiological consequences of environmental conditions. The relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to individual variation in telomere length is however unclear, yet important for understanding its evolutionary dynamics. In particular, the evidence for transgenerational effects, in terms of parental age at conception, on telomere length is mixed. Here, we investigate the heritability of telomere length, using the ‘animal model’, and parental age at conception effects on offspring telomere length in a wild population of European badgers (Meles meles). While we found no heritability of telomere length, our power to detect heritability was low and a repeatability of 2% across individual lifetimes provides a low upper limit to ordinary heritability. However, year (25%) and cohort (3%) explained greater proportions of the phenotypic variance in telomere length. There was no support for parental age at conception effects, or for longitudinal within-parental age effects on offspring telomere length. Our results indicate a lack of transgenerational effects through parental age at conception and a low potential for evolutionary change in telomere length in this population. Instead, we provide evidence that individual variation in telomere length is largely driven by environmental variation in this wild mammal.

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“…Many studies of telomeres, particularly those in evolutionary biology, focus on telomere lengths (TL) in whole blood or white blood cells (Badas et al, ; Barrett & Richardson, ; Bize, Criscuolo, Metcalfe, Nasir, & Monaghan, ; Froy et al, ; Lopez‐Arrabe et al, ; Olsson, Wapstra, & Friesen, ; Rollings, Uhrig, et al, ). This focus on blood is largely due to ease of collection, relatively low invasiveness, and because it allows repeated collection of samples.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex‐ And tissue‐specific differences in telomere length in a reptile

Rollings

Friesen

Whittington

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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The usage of telomere length (TL) in blood as a proxy for the TL of other tissues relies on the assumption that telomere dynamics across all tissues are similar. However, telomere attrition can be caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS) which may vary with metabolic rate, which itself varies across organs depending upon the life history strategy of an organism. Thus, we chose to measure the telomeres of various cell types in juvenile painted dragon lizards, Ctenophorus pictus, given their unusual life history strategy. Individuals typically only experience a single mating season. We measured the TL of male and female dragons using qPCR and observed that TL varied with tissue type and sex. Telomeres of blood cells were longer than those of liver, heart, brain, and spleen, and females had longer telomeres than males. Brain telomeres in males were approximately half the length of those in females. Telomeric attrition in the male brain may be due to the need for rapid learning of reproductive tactics (territory patrol and defense, mate‐finding). Significant correlations between the TL of tissue types suggest that blood TL may be a useful proxy for the TL of other tissues. Our comparison of organ‐specific telomere dynamics, the first in a reptile, suggests that the usage of blood TL as a proxy requires careful consideration of the life history strategy of the organism.

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No evidence for parental age effects on offspring leukocyte telomere length in free-living Soay sheep

Cited by 28 publications

References 55 publications

The environmental and genetic determinants of chick telomere length in Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor)

The environmental and genetic determinants of chick telomere length in Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor)

Estimation of environmental and genetic contributions to telomere length variation in a wild mammal

Sex‐ And tissue‐specific differences in telomere length in a reptile

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