Parental age influences offspring telomere loss

Abstract

Summary1. The age of the parents at the time of offspring production can influence offspring longevity, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. The effect of parental age on offspring telomere dynamics (length and loss rate) is one mechanism that could be important in this context. 2. Parental age might influence the telomere length that offspring inherit or age-related differences in the quality of parental care could influence the rate of offspring telomere loss. However, these routes have generally not been disentangled. 3. Here, we investigated whether parental age was related to offspring telomere dynamics using parents ranging in age from 2 to 22 years old in a free-living population of a long-lived seabird, the European shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis). By measuring the telomere length of offspring at hatching and towards the end of the post-natal growth period, we could assess whether any potential parental age effect was confined to the post-natal rearing period. 4. There was no effect of maternal or paternal age on the initial telomere length of their chicks. However, chicks produced by older mothers and fathers experienced significantly greater telomere loss during the post-natal nestling growth period. We had relatively few nests in which the ages of both parents were known, and individuals in this population mate assortatively with respect to age. Thus, we could not conclusively determine whether the parental age effect was due to maternal age, paternal age, or both; however, it appears that the effect is stronger in mothers.5. These results demonstrate that in this species, there was no evidence that parental age was related to offspring hatching telomere length. However, telomere loss during nestling growth was reduced in the offspring of older parents. This could be due to an age-related deterioration in the quality of the environment that parents provide, or because parents that invest less in offspring rearing live to an older age.

Links between parental life histories of wild salmon and the telomere lengths of their offspring

“…The father's early growth rate (and hence time taken to reach the marine phase) had an association in the later stages of development. We found no link between parental age and offspring telomere length in salmon, despite this previously being found to be one of the most pervasive parental effects on offspring telomere length across a range of taxa (e.g., Asghar et al, 2015;Broer et al, 2013;De Meyer et al, 2007;Heidinger et al, 2016). However, it may be the case that our relatively smaller sample size (in comparison to these other studies) did not allow enough power to statistically detect a parental age effect.…”

Paternal and grandpaternal ages at conception and descendant telomere lengths in chimpanzees and humans

“…The first examined only 12 individual sand lizards ( Lacerta agilis ) and found that having older PAC predicted shorter TL (Olsson et al 2011). The second examined 204 European shag ( Phalacrocorax aristotelis ) chicks and found no association of TL with paternal age (Heidinger et al 2015). Here we examine whether the PAC-effect is evident in captive chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ), our closest living relatives.…”

Spatio‐temporal variation in lifelong telomere dynamics in a long‐term ecological study

“…A key question to be addressed is the extent to which RTL, especially in early life, reflects inheritance and parental effects (e.g. Asghar, Bensch, Tarka, Hansson, & Hasselquist, 2014;Becker et al, 2015;Heidinger et al, 2016). For example, parental age and quality may key variables that impact the telomere dynamics of offspring in the Seychelles warbler, and will be addressed in future studies.…”