scholarly journals Reduced telomere length in offspring of old fathers in a long-lived seabird

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 20180213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Bouwhuis ◽  
Simon Verhulst ◽  
Christina Bauch ◽  
Oscar Vedder
Keyword(s):  
Telomere Length ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Significant Negative Correlation ◽  
Paternal Age ◽  
Lifetime Reproductive Success ◽  
Parental Age ◽  
Germline Stem Cells ◽  
Base Pairs ◽  
Older Parents ◽  
The Relationship

Evidence for transgenerational effects of senescence, whereby offspring from older parents have a reduced lifetime reproductive success, is increasing. Such effects could arise from compromised germline maintenance in old parents, potentially reflected in reduced telomere length in their offspring. We test the relationship between parental age and offspring early-life telomere length in a natural population of common terns and find a significant negative correlation between paternal age and offspring telomere length. Offspring telomere length is reduced by 35 base pairs for each additional year of paternal age. We find no correlation with maternal age. These results fit with the idea of compromised germline maintenance in males, whose germline stem cells require continued division.

scholarly journals Telomere length in house sparrows increases in early-life and can be paternally inherited

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Bennett ◽  
Antje Girndt ◽  
Alfredo Sánchez-Tójar ◽  
Terry Burke ◽  
Mirre J. P. Simons ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Telomere Length ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Passer Domesticus ◽  
Age Effects ◽  
Parental Age ◽  
House Sparrows ◽  
Older Parents ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Ageing Rate ◽  
Insight Into

Offspring of older parents in many species display decreased longevity, a faster ageing rate and lower fecundity than offspring born to younger parents. Biomarkers, such as telomeres, that tend to shorten as individual age, may provide insight into the mechanisms of parental age effects. Parental age could determine telomere length either through inheritance of shortened telomeres or through indirect effects, such as variation in parental care with parent ages, which in turn might lead to variation in offspring telomere length. There is no current consensus as to the heritability of telomere length, and the direction and extent of parental age effects however. To address this, here we experimentally investigate how parental age is associated with telomere length at two time points in early life in a captive population of house sparrows (Passer domesticus). We experimentally separated parental age from sex effects by allowing the parent birds to only mate with young, or old partners. We found that telomere length of the offspring increased between the age of 0.5 and 3 months at the group and individual level, which has been reported previously predominantly in non-avian taxa. We further show that older fathers produced daughters with a greater early-life increase in telomere length, supporting sex-specific inheritance, and or sex-specific non-genetic effects. Overall, our results highlight the need for more studies testing early-life telomere dynamics and sex-specific heritability of telomere length.

scholarly journals Telomere heritability and parental age at conception effects in a wild avian population

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Sparks ◽  
Lewis G. Spurgin ◽  
Marco van der Velde ◽  
Eleanor A. Fairfield ◽  
Jan Komdeur ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
Telomere Length ◽  
Paternal Age ◽  
Parental Age ◽  
Wild Populations ◽  
Evolutionary Potential ◽  
Confounding Variables ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Seychelles Warbler ◽  
Heritability Estimates

Individual variation in telomere length is predictive of health and mortality risk across a range of species. However, the relative influence of environmental and genetic variation on individual telomere length in wild populations remains poorly understood. In previous studies, heritability of telomere length has primarily been calculated using parent-offspring regression, but shared environments can confound such estimates. Furthermore, associations with age and parental age at conception effects are typically not accounted for but can also bias heritability estimates. To control for these confounding variables, quantitative genetic ‘animal models’ can be used. However, the few studies on wild populations using this approach have been restricted by power. Here, we investigated the heritability of telomere length and parental age at conception effects in the Seychelles warbler using 2664 telomere length measures from 1318 birds over 20 years and a multi-generational pedigree. We found a weak negative within-paternal age at conception effect (as fathers aged, their offspring had shorter telomeres) and a weak positive between-maternal age at conception effect (females that survived to older ages had offspring with longer telomeres). While parent–offspring regressions did not detect heritability, animal models provided evidence that heritability of telomere length was low in this population. Environmental and technical variation largely influenced telomere length and would have biased heritability estimates if unaccounted for. Estimating the heritability of telomere length is complex, requiring large sample sizes and accounting for confounding effects in order to improve our understanding of the evolutionary potential of telomere length in the wild.

scholarly journals Early‐life telomere length predicts lifespan and lifetime reproductive success in a wild bird

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 1127-1137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin R. Eastwood ◽  
Michelle L. Hall ◽  
Niki Teunissen ◽  
Sjouke A. Kingma ◽  
Nataly Hidalgo Aranzamendi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Telomere Length ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Wild Bird ◽  
Lifetime Reproductive Success

scholarly journals Associations of parental age with offspring all-cause and cause-specific adult mortality

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Carslake ◽  
Per Tynelius ◽  
Gerard J. van den Berg ◽  
George Davey Smith
Keyword(s):  
Adult Mortality ◽  
Paternal Age ◽  
Adult Survival ◽  
Parental Age ◽  
Offspring Survival ◽  
Older Parents ◽  
Childhood Environment ◽  
Sibling Comparison ◽  
Common Causes

AbstractPeople are having children later in life. The consequences for offspring adult survival have been little studied due to the need for long follow-up linked to parental data and most research has considered offspring survival only in early life. We used Swedish registry data to examine all-cause and cause-specific adult mortality (293,470 deaths among 5,204,433 people, followed up to a maximum of 80 years old) in relation to parental age. For most common causes of death adult survival was improved in the offspring of older parents (HR for all-cause survival was 0.96 (95% CI: 0.96, 0.97) and 0.98 (0.97, 0.98) per five years of maternal and paternal age, respectively). The childhood environment provided by older parents may more than compensate for any physiological disadvantages. Within-family analyses suggested stronger benefits of advanced parental age. This emphasises the importance of secular trends; a parent’s later children were born into a wealthier, healthier world. Sibling-comparison analyses can best assess individual family planning choices, but our results suggested a vulnerability to selection bias when there is extensive censoring. We consider the numerous causal and non-causal mechanisms which can link parental age and offspring survival, and the difficulty of separating them with currently available data.

Parental Age and Schizophrenia

1966 ◽  
Vol 112 (490) ◽  
pp. 899-905 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. L. Granville-Grossman
Keyword(s):  
Maternal Age ◽  
Age Effect ◽  
Age Effects ◽  
Paternal Age ◽  
Considerable Importance ◽  
Parental Age ◽  
Advanced Paternal Age ◽  
Older Parents ◽  
Maternal Age Effect ◽  
Environmental Causes

Reports that schizophrenics have older parents than non-schizophrenics (Barry, 1945; Goodman, 1957; Johanson, 1958; Gregory, 1959) are of considerable importance. If valid, they provide evidence for environmental causes of schizophrenia, and by analogy with other conditions where parental age effects have been noted may give some indication of the nature of these causes. There are, however, inconsistencies in these studies: thus Johanson and Gregory found a significant association between advanced paternal age and schizophrenia, but failed to confirm the maternal age effect noted by Barry and Goodman. These differences indicate the need for further investigation and this paper describes such a study.

scholarly journals Intergenerational effects on offspring telomere length: interactions among maternal age, stress exposure and offspring sex

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1912) ◽  
pp. 20191845 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Marasco ◽  
Winnie Boner ◽  
Kate Griffiths ◽  
Britt Heidinger ◽  
Pat Monaghan
Keyword(s):  
Telomere Length ◽  
Maternal Age ◽  
Reproductive Effort ◽  
Paternal Age ◽  
Maternal Environment ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Older Parents ◽  
Offspring Sex ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Telomere Dynamics

Offspring produced by older parents often have reduced longevity, termed the Lansing effect. Because adults usually have similar-aged mates, it is difficult to separate effects of maternal and paternal age, and environmental circumstances are also likely to influence offspring outcomes. The mechanisms underlying the Lansing effect are poorly understood. Variation in telomere length and loss, particularly in early life, is linked to longevity in many vertebrates, and therefore changes in offspring telomere dynamics could be very important in this context. We examined the effect of maternal age and environment on offspring telomere length in zebra finches. We kept mothers under either control (ad libitum food) or more challenging (unpredictable food) circumstances and experimentally minimized paternal age and mate choice effects. Irrespective of the maternal environment, there was a substantial negative effect of maternal age on offspring telomere length, evident in longitudinal and cross-sectional comparisons (average of 39% shorter). Furthermore, in young mothers, sons reared by challenged mothers had significantly shorter telomere lengths than sons reared by control mothers. This effect disappeared when the mothers were old, and was absent in daughters. These findings highlight the importance of telomere dynamics as inter-generational mediators of the evolutionary processes determining optimal age-specific reproductive effort and sex allocation.

scholarly journals Parental Age and the Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease in Offspring: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 140-150
Author(s):  
Natalia Szejko ◽  
Pedro Macul Ferreira de Barros ◽  
Victor J. Avila-Quintero ◽  
Adam Lombroso ◽  
Michael Howard Bloch
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Weighted Mean Difference ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Paternal Age ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Parental Age ◽  
Older Parents ◽  
Increased Risk

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia worldwide, accounting for 50–75% of all cases. While older maternal and paternal age at childbirth are established risk factors for Down syndrome which is associated with later AD, it is still not entirely clear whether parental age is a risk factor for AD. Previous studies have suggested contradictory findings. <b><i>Objectives:</i></b> We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine whether parental (maternal and paternal) age at birth was associated with AD and whether individuals born to younger or older parents were at an increased risk for AD. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Two reviewers searched the electronic database of PubMed for relevant studies. Eligibility for the meta-analysis was based on the following criteria: (1) studies involving patients with AD and an adequate control group, (2) case control or cohort studies, (3) studies investigating parental age. All statistical analyses were completed in STATA/IC version 16. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Eleven studies involving 4,371 participants were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. Meta-analysis demonstrated no significant association between maternal (weighted mean difference [WMD] 0.49, 95% CI –0.52 to 1.49, <i>p</i> = 0.34) and paternal age and AD (WMD 1.00, 95% CI –0.55 to 2.56, <i>p</i> = 0.21). Similarly, individuals born to younger (&#x3c;25 years) or older parents (&#x3e;35 years) did not demonstrate a differential risk for AD. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> Overall, this meta-analysis did not demonstrate an association between parental age and the risk of AD in offspring. These findings should be interpreted with caution given the limited power of the overall meta-analysis and the methodological limitations of the underlying studies as in many cases no adjustment for potential confounders was included.

scholarly journals Epigenetic inheritance of telomere length in wild birds

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Bauch ◽  
Jelle J. Boonekamp ◽  
Peter Korsten ◽  
Ellis Mulder ◽  
Simon Verhulst
Keyword(s):  
Telomere Length ◽  
Early Development ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Protein Structures ◽  
Epigenetic Inheritance ◽  
Age Effect ◽  
Paternal Age ◽  
Parental Age ◽  
Epigenetic Effect ◽  
Paternal Age Effect

AbstractTelomere length (TL) predicts health and lifespan in humans and other organisms, making the identification of the causes of TL variation of interest. At conception, zygotes inherit genes that regulate TL during early development, but at the same time already express a phenotype, which is the TL of the parental gametes that formed the zygote. Whether the effect of gamete TL is transient or affects TL for life depends on the extent to which regulatory genes compensate for gamete TL variation during early development. A carry-over effect of parental TL, resulting in epigenetic inheritance, has been suggested to explain the observed relationship between parental age and offspring TL in humans and other species. However, reports of parental age effects are based on cross-sectional data, and age at reproduction has numerous confounds. Furthermore, parental age may affect offspring telomere dynamics between conception and sampling, which could also explain the paternal age effect. Using longitudinal telomere data of jackdaw parents and their chicks, we show that chicks hatched with shorter telomeres as individual fathers aged, whereas mother age had no effect. By cross-fostering eggs, we confirmed the paternal age effect to be independent of paternal care after conception. The epigenetic effect accounted for 34% of the variance in offspring TL that was explained by paternal telomere length; the remaining 66% we ascribe to a combination of environmental and additive genetic effects. Thus, our results strongly indicate epigenetic inheritance of TL, with potential consequences for offspring fitness prospects.Significance statementTelomeres are DNA-protein structures at chromosome ends and their length predicts remaining lifespan in humans and other organisms. Variation in telomere length is thought to be largely of genetic origin, but telomere inheritance may be unusual because a fertilised cell already has a telomere length (most traits are first expressed later in life). Telomeres shorten with age, and, using long-term individual-based data of jackdaw families, we show that as fathers aged, they produced chicks with shorter telomeres. This shows that paternal telomere length directly affects offspring telomere length, i.e. is inherited genetically but without the involvement of genes. This is known as an epigenetic effect and explained a large part (≥34%) of the telomere resemblance between fathers and their offspring.

scholarly journals Telomere Length is Not a Main factor for the Development of Islet Autoimmunity and Type 1 Diabetes in the TEDDY Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hemang Parikh ◽  
Carina Törn ◽  
Xiang Liu ◽  
Suna Onengut-Gumuscu ◽  
Kevin Counts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Type 1 Diabetes ◽  
Telomere Length ◽  
Significant Negative Correlation ◽  
Paternal Age ◽  
Islet Autoimmunity ◽  
Degree Relative ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
Nested Case Control ◽  
Hla Dr3

Abstract The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) study enrolled 8,676 children, 3-4 months of age, born with HLA-susceptibility genotypes for islet autoimmunity (IA) and type 1 diabetes (T1D). Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) was performed in 1,119 children in a nested case-control study design. Telomere length was estimated from WGS data using five tools: Computel, Telseq, Telomerecat, qMotif and Motif_counter. The estimated median telomere length was 5.10 kb (IQR: 4.52 kb – 5.68 kb) using Computel. The age when the blood sample was drawn had a significant negative correlation with telomere length (P = 0.003). European children, particularly those from Finland (P = 0.041) and from Sweden (P = 0.001), had shorter telomeres than children from the U.S.A. Paternal age (P = 0.019) was positively associated with telomere length. First degree relative status, presence of gestational diabetes in the mother, and maternal age did not have a significant impact on estimated telomere length. HLA-DR4/4 or HLA-DR4/X children had significantly longer telomeres compared to children with HLA-DR3/3 or HLA-DR3/9 haplogenotypes (P = 0.008). Estimated telomere length was not significantly different with respect to any IA (P = 0.377), IAA-first (P = 0.248), GADA-first (P = 0.248) or T1D (P = 0.861). These results suggest that telomere length has no major impact on the risk for IA, the first step to develop T1D. Nevertheless, telomere length was shorter in the T1D high prevalence populations, Finland and Sweden.

scholarly journals Experimental demonstration that offspring fathered by old males have shorter telomeres and reduced lifespans

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1874) ◽  
pp. 20180268 ◽  
Author(s):  
José C. Noguera ◽  
Neil B. Metcalfe ◽  
Pat Monaghan
Keyword(s):  
Zebra Finch ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Experimental Approach ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Parental Age ◽  
Experimental Demonstration ◽  
Paternal Effects ◽  
Differential Survival ◽  
Older Parents ◽  
Results Reporting

Offspring of older parents frequently show reduced longevity, but the mechanisms driving this so-called ‘Lansing effect' are unknown. While inheritance of short telomeres from older parents could underlie this effect, studies to date in different species have found mixed results, reporting positive, negative or no association between parental age and offspring telomere length (TL). However, most of the existing evidence is from non-experimental studies in which it is difficult to exclude alternative explanations such as differential survival of parents with different telomere lengths. Here we provide evidence in the zebra finch that offspring from older parents have reduced lifespans. As a first step in disentangling possible causes, we used an experimental approach to examine whether or not we could detect pre-natal paternal effects on offspring TL. We found that zebra finch embryos fathered by old males have shorter telomeres than those produced by the same mothers but with younger fathers. Since variation in embryonic TL persists into post-natal life, and early life TL is predictive of longevity in this species, this experimental study demonstrates that a paternally driven pre-natal TL reduction could at least in part underlie the reduced lifespan of offspring from older parents.

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