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 The Genetic Architecture of Bovine Telomere Length in Early Life and Association With Animal Fitness

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna J. Ilska-Warner ◽  
Androniki Psifidi ◽  
Luise A. Seeker ◽  
Rachael V. Wilbourn ◽  
Sarah L. Underwood ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Telomere Length ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Genetic Architecture

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 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

scholarly journals Early life growth and adult telomere length in a Filipino cohort study

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin E. Masterson ◽  
M. Geoffrey Hayes ◽  
Christopher W. Kuzawa ◽  
Nanette R. Lee ◽  
Dan T.A. Eisenberg
Keyword(s):  
Cohort Study ◽  
Telomere Length ◽  
Early Life

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
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