ArticleScientific reports2016
Embryonic and postnatal telomere length decrease with ovulation order within clutches.
Article in Scientific reports, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assortative breeding experiment in a songbird suggests telomere length is determined during early life rather than at conception.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Hidden Causes of Variation in Offspring Reproductive Value: Negative Effects of Maternal Breeding Age on Offspring Telomere Length Persist Undiminished Across Multiple Generations.Ecology letters · 2025Article
- Linking telomere dynamics to evolution, life history and environmental change: perspectives, predictions and problems.Biogerontology · 2024Review
- Growth acceleration results in faster telomere shortening later in life.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Pace and stability of embryonic development affect telomere dynamics: an experimental study in a precocial bird model.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Antioxidant supplementation slows telomere shortening in free-living white stork chicks.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Intergenerational effects on offspring telomere length: interactions among maternal age, stress exposure and offspring sex.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Distinct telomere differences within a reproductively bimodal common lizard population.Functional ecology · 2019Article
- Experimental demonstration that offspring fathered by old males have shorter telomeres and reduced lifespans.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
- Heritability of telomere variation: it is all about the environment!Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2018Review
- Somatic growth and telomere dynamics in vertebrates: relationships, mechanisms and consequences.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2018Review
- Physiological increase of yolk testosterone level does not affect oxidative status and telomere length in gull hatchlings.PloS one · 2018Article
- Offspring telomere length in the long lived Alpine swift is negatively related to the age of their biological father and foster mother.Biology letters · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Telomere length (TL) in early life has been found to be predictive of subsequent lifespan. Factors such as parental TL, parental age and environmental conditions during development have been shown to contribute to the observed variation in TL among individuals. One factor that has not hitherto been considered is ovulation order, although it is well established that the last hatched/born offspring in a brood or litter often show relatively poor subsequent performance. We examined the within- and across-clutch effect of ovulation order on TL in embryos of zebra finches experiencing the same controlled incubation conditions (N = 151), and tested whether any such ovulation order effects remained detectable in adults (N = 122). Irrespective of clutch and egg size, TL in early-stage embryos (72 h incubation) markedly decreased with within-clutch ovulation order; the difference in TL of first and last-laid embryos was equivalent to the average within-individual telomere loss over the entire period of nestling and juvenile life. This ovulation-order effect occurred only within but not across clutches, and was still evident in adults. Given that TL in early life predicts lifespan, our results suggest that parental effects on telomere length could contribute to the known poor performance of later-ovulated family members.
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