scholarly journals Early‐life seasonal, weather and social effects on telomere length in a wild mammal

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sil H.J. van Lieshout ◽  
Elisa P. Badás ◽  
Julius G. Bright Ross ◽  
Amanda Bretman ◽  
Chris Newman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Telomere Length ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Wild Mammal ◽  
Seasonal Weather

scholarly journals Early-life telomere length predicts survival to adulthood and lifespan in a wild mammal

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sil H. J. van Lieshout ◽  
Amanda Bretman ◽  
Chris Newman ◽  
Christina D. Buesching ◽  
David W. Macdonald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Telomere Length ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Meles Meles ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Wild Mammal ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Early Life Conditions ◽  
Individual Consistency ◽  
And Function ◽  
European Badgers

Telomeres, protective caps at the end of chromosomes, maintain genomic stability and function as a biomarker of senescence in many vertebrate species. Telomere length at different ages has been related to (subsequent) lifespan, but to date only one laboratory-based study has shown a direct link between early-life telomere length and lifespan. Whether this relationship holds in wild populations, where individuals are subject to variable natural conditions that may mask relationships seen in controlled laboratory settings, remains unknown. Here, we provide evidence that early-life telomere length predicts survival to adulthood in a wild population of European badgers (Meles meles). Furthermore, both early-life telomere length and telomere rate of change predict lifespan. We found a complex cross-sectional relationship between telomere length and age, where telomeres shortened over the first 38 months, but with no uniform loss after this point. We found little within-individual consistency in telomere length across lifespan, where telomere length did not predict residual lifespan. Importantly, we also observed increases in mean telomere length within individuals, which could not be explained by measurement error alone. Early-life telomere length varied distinctly among cohorts, indicating a role for early-life environment and additive genetic effects. Our results elaborate on the dynamic way that telomeres function as a biomarker of senescence in a wild mammal, where telomere length and rate of change can reflect short-term and lasting effects of early-life conditions on individual life-history.

scholarly journals Individual variation in early‐life telomere length and survival in a wild mammal

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (18) ◽  
pp. 4152-4165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sil H. J. Lieshout ◽  
Amanda Bretman ◽  
Chris Newman ◽  
Christina D. Buesching ◽  
David W. Macdonald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Telomere Length ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Wild Mammal

scholarly journals A resource-poor developmental diet reduces adult aggression in male Drosophila melanogaster

2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Edmunds ◽  
Stuart Wigby ◽  
Jennifer C. Perry
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Energy Budgets ◽  
Male Aggression ◽  
Aggressive Interactions ◽  
Low Resource ◽  
Resource Poor ◽  
Individual Effects ◽  
Aggressive Behaviours

AbstractAggressive behaviours occur throughout the animal kingdom and agonistic contests often govern access to resources. Nutrition experienced during development has the potential to influence aggressive behaviours in adults through effects on growth, energy budgets and an individual’s internal state. In particular, resource-poor developmental nutrition might decrease adult aggression by limiting growth and energy budgets, or alternatively might increase adult aggression by enhancing motivation to compete for resources. However, the direction of this relationship—and effects of developmental nutrition experienced by rivals—remains unknown in most species, limiting understanding of how early-life environments contribute to variation in aggression. We investigated these alternative hypotheses by assessing male-male aggression in adult fruit flies, Drosophila melanogaster, that developed on a low-, medium- or high-resource diet, manipulated via yeast content. We found that a low-resource developmental diet reduced the probability of aggressive lunges in adults, as well as threat displays against rivals that developed on a low-resource diet. These effects appeared to be independent of diet-related differences in body mass. Males performed relatively more aggression on a central food patch when facing rivals of a low-resource diet, suggesting that developmental diet affects aggressive interactions through social effects in addition to individual effects. Our finding that resource-poor developmental diets reduce male-male aggression in D. melanogaster is consistent with the idea that resource budgets mediate aggression and in a mass-independent manner. Our study improves understanding of the links between nutrition and aggression.Significance statementEarly-life nutrition can influence social behaviours in adults. Aggression is a widespread social behaviour with important consequences for fitness. Using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, we show that a poor developmental diet reduces aspects of adult aggressive behaviour in males. Furthermore, males perform more aggression near food patches when facing rivals of poor nutrition. This suggests that early-life nutrition affects aggressive interactions through social effects in addition to individual effects.

scholarly journals Associations between DNA methylation and telomere length during early life: Insight from wild zebra finches ( Taeniopygia guttata )

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth L. Sheldon ◽  
Riccardo Ton ◽  
Winnie Boner ◽  
Pat Monaghan ◽  
Shirley Raveh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Telomere Length ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Taeniopygia Guttata ◽  
Zebra Finches

scholarly journals Born to be young: prenatal thyroid hormones increase early-life telomere length

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Stier ◽  
Bin-Yan Hsu ◽  
Coline Marciau ◽  
Blandine Doligez ◽  
Lars Gustafsson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thyroid Hormones ◽  
Telomere Length ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Copy Number ◽  
Growth Period ◽  
Postnatal Growth ◽  
Mtdna Copy Number ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Growth And Aging ◽  
Positive Effect

AbstractPrenatal environmental conditions can have lifelong consequences on health and aging. The underlying mechanisms remain nonetheless little understood. Thyroid hormones (THs) are important regulators of embryogenesis transferred from the mother to the embryo. In an avian model, we manipulated embryo exposure to maternal THs through egg injection and investigated the consequences on postnatal growth and aging. We first report that mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number and telomere length significantly decrease from early-life to late adulthood, thus confirming that these two molecular markers are hallmarks of aging in our wild bird model. The experimental elevation of prenatal THs levels had a transient positive effect on postnatal growth. Elevated prenatal THs had no effect on mtDNA copy number but significantly increased telomere length both soon after birth and at the end of the growth period (equivalent to offsetting ca. 4 years of post-growth telomere shortening). These findings suggest that prenatal THs have a key role in setting the ‘biological’ age at birth, and thus might influence longevity.

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 Genetic architecture and heritability of early‐life telomere length in a wild passerine

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Le Pepke ◽  
Thomas Kvalnes ◽  
Sarah Lundregan ◽  
Winnie Boner ◽  
Pat Monaghan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Telomere Length ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Genetic Architecture

scholarly journals Genetic architecture and heritability of early-life telomere length in a wild passerine

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Pepke ◽  
Thomas Kvalnes ◽  
Sarah Lundregan ◽  
Winnie Boner ◽  
Pat Monaghan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Telomere Length ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Genetic Basis ◽  
Skeletal Development ◽  
Cellular Growth ◽  
Phenotypic Correlation ◽  
Animal Populations ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Genomic Regions

Early-life telomere length (TL) is associated with fitness in a range of organisms. Little is known about the genetic basis of variation in TL in wild animal populations, but to understand the evolutionary and ecological significance of TL it is important to quantify the relative importance of genetic and environmental variation in TL. In this study, we measured TL in 2746 house sparrow nestlings sampled across 20 years and used an animal model to show that there is a small heritable component of early-life TL (h2=0.04), but with a strong component of maternal inheritance. Variation in TL among individuals was mainly driven by environmental (year) variance, but also brood and parental effects. We did not find evidence for a negative genetic correlation underlying the observed negative phenotypic correlation between TL and structural body size. Thus, TL may evolve independently of body size and the negative phenotypic correlation is likely to be caused by non-genetic environmental effects. We further used genome‐wide association analysis to identify genomic regions associated with TL variation. We identified several putative genes underlying TL variation; these have been inferred to be involved in oxidative stress, cellular growth, skeletal development, cell differentiation and tumorigenesis in other species. Together, our results show that TL is a lowly heritable, polygenic trait which is strongly affected by environmental conditions in a free-living bird.

Early life tobacco exposure and children’s telomere length: The HELIX project

2020 ◽  
Vol 711 ◽  
pp. 135028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Citlalli Osorio-Yáñez ◽  
Diana B.P. Clemente ◽  
Lea Maitre ◽  
Martha Vives-Usano ◽  
Mariona Bustamante ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Telomere Length ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Tobacco Exposure
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