ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2015
On being the right size: increased body size is associated with reduced telomere length under natural conditions.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Environmental and Genetic Determinants of Early-Life Telomere Length in Tree Swallows.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Exploring the Development of Wild Microbiomes in the Eastern Fence Lizard.Environmental microbiology reports · 2026Article
- Telomere Length Is Determined by Intrinsic Factors and Is Shortened During Drought Years inEcology and evolution · 2026Article
- The ecology of gestational growth in a wild cooperative mammal.The Journal of animal ecology · 2026Article
- Increased Reproductive Output and Telomere Shortening Following Calcium Supplementation in a Wild Songbird.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Stressors interact across generations to influence offspring telomeres and survival.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Causes and consequences of variation in early-life telomere length in a bird metapopulation.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Contrasting associations between nestling telomere length and pre and postnatal helpers' presence in a cooperatively breeding bird.Oecologia · 2021Article
- Telomere attrition with age in a wild amphibian population.Biology letters · 2020Article
- Early life growth and adult telomere length in a Filipino cohort study.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2019Article
- Somatic growth and telomere dynamics in vertebrates: relationships, mechanisms and consequences.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2018Review
- All's well that ends well: why large species have short telomeres.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2018Article
- Telomere length and antioxidant defense associate with parasite-induced retarded growth in wild brown trout.Oecologia · 2017Article
- Magellanic penguin telomeres do not shorten with age with increased reproductive effort, investment, and basal corticosterone.Ecology and evolution · 2017Article
- Article
- Is telomere length associated with mate choice in a songbird with a high rate of extra-pair paternity?PloS one · 2017Article
- Corticosterone, inflammation, immune status and telomere length in frigatebird nestlings facing a severe herpesvirus infection.Conservation physiology · 2017Article
- Brood size moderates associations between relative size, telomere length, and immune development in European starling nestlings.Ecology and evolution · 2016Article
- Interactions between parental traits, environmental harshness and growth rate in determining telomere length in wild juvenile salmon.Molecular ecology · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Evolution of body size is likely to involve trade-offs between body size, growth rate and longevity. Within species, larger body size is associated with faster growth and ageing, and reduced longevity, but the cellular processes driving these relationships are poorly understood. One mechanism that might play a key role in determining optimal body size is the relationship between body size and telomere dynamics. However, we know little about how telomere length is affected when selection for larger size is imposed in natural populations. We report here on the relationship between structural body size and telomere length in wild house sparrows at the beginning and end of a selection regime for larger parent size that was imposed for 4 years in an isolated population of house sparrows. A negative relationship between fledgling size and telomere length was present at the start of the selection; this was extended when fledgling size increased under the selection regime, demonstrating a persistent covariance between structural size and telomere length. Changes in telomere dynamics, either as a correlated trait or a consequence of larger size, could reduce potential longevity and the consequent trade-offs could thereby play an important role in the evolution of optimal body size.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.