ArticleBMC genetics2012
Empirical evaluation of humpback whale telomere length estimates; quality control and factors causing variability in the singleplex and multiplex qPCR methods.
Article in BMC genetics, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- How sample handling distorts telomere studies.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Telomere Tales: Exploring the Impact of Stress, Sociality, and Exercise on Dogs' Cellular Aging.Veterinary sciences · 2025Article
- An epigenetic DNA methylation clock for age estimates in Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Evolutionary applications · 2023Article
- Subclinical atherosclerosis and immune activation in young HIV-infected patients with telomere shortening.Aging · 2021Article
- Multi-species and multi-tissue methylation clocks for age estimation in toothed whales and dolphins.Communications biology · 2021Article
- An epigenetic clock to estimate the age of living beluga whales.Evolutionary applications · 2021Article
- Life Expectancy in Marine Mammals Is Unrelated to Telomere Length but Is Associated With Body Size.Frontiers in genetics · 2021Article
- Evaluating minimally invasive sample collection methods for telomere length measurement.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2018Article
- Telomere length measurement by qPCR in birds is affected by storage method of blood samples.Oecologia · 2017Article
- TaER Expression Is Associated with Transpiration Efficiency Traits and Yield in Bread Wheat.PloS one · 2015Article
- Epigenetic estimation of age in humpback whales.Molecular ecology resources · 2014Article
- Measuring telomere length and telomere dynamics in evolutionary biology and ecology.Methods in ecology and evolution · 2014Article
- Telomere length varies by DNA extraction method: implications for epidemiologic research.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2013Article
- Telomeres and telomere dynamics: relevance to cancers of the GI tract.Expert review of gastroenterology & hepatology · 2013Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTelomeres, the protective cap of chromosomes, have emerged as powerful markers of biological age and life history in model and non-model species. The qPCR method for telomere length estimation is one of the most common methods for telomere length estimation, but has received recent critique for being too error-prone and yielding unreliable results. This critique coincides with an increasing awareness of the potentials and limitations of the qPCR technique in general and the proposal of a general set of guidelines (MIQE) for standardization of experimental, analytical, and reporting steps of qPCR. In order to evaluate the utility of the qPCR method for telomere length estimation in non-model species, we carried out four different qPCR assays directed at humpback whale telomeres, and subsequently performed a rigorous quality control to evaluate the performance of each assay.
resultsPerformance differed substantially among assays and only one assay was found useful for telomere length estimation in humpback whales. The most notable factors causing these inter-assay differences were primer design and choice of using singleplex or multiplex assays. Inferred amplification efficiencies differed by up to 40% depending on assay and quantification method, however this variation only affected telomere length estimates in the worst performing assays.
conclusionOur results suggest that seemingly well performing qPCR assays may contain biases that will only be detected by extensive quality control. Moreover, we show that the qPCR method for telomere length estimation can be highly precise and accurate, and thus suitable for telomere measurement in non-model species, if effort is devoted to optimization at all experimental and analytical steps. We conclude by highlighting a set of quality controls which may serve for further standardization of the qPCR method for telomere length estimation, and discuss some of the factors that may cause variation in qPCR experiments.
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