ArticleMolecular ecology2017
Sex differences in leucocyte telomere length in a free-living mammal.
Article in Molecular ecology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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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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
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- The relationship between telomere length and mortality risk in non-model vertebrate systems: a meta-analysis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2018Pooled it
- Unpredictable warm spells in winter increase blood cortisol level but lengthen telomeres in a seasonal rodentProceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Article
- No correlative evidence of costs of infection or immunity on leucocyte telomere length in a wild population of Soay sheep.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- No effect of testosterone or sexual ornamentation on telomere dynamics: A case study and meta-analyses.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Telomere Dynamics in Livestock.Biology · 2023Review
- Prenatal environment impacts telomere length in newborn dairy heifers.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Large mammal telomere length variation across ecoregions.BMC ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Sex-Specific Association of Serum Anti-Oxidative Capacity and Leukocyte Telomere Length.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Article
- No sex differences in adult telomere length across vertebrates: a meta-analysis.Royal Society open science · 2020Article
- Social effects on age-related and sex-specific immune cell profiles in a wild mammal.Biology letters · 2020Article
- Telomere shortening as a mechanism of long-term cost of infectious diseases in natural animal populations.Biology letters · 2019Article
- The Genetic Architecture of Bovine Telomere Length in Early Life and Association With Animal Fitness.Frontiers in genetics · 2019Article
- Bovine telomere dynamics and the association between telomere length and productive lifespan.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Somatic growth and telomere dynamics in vertebrates: relationships, mechanisms and consequences.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2018Review
- Sex Differences in Aging: Genomic Instability.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2018Review
- Spatio-temporal variation in lifelong telomere dynamics in a long-term ecological study.The Journal of animal ecology · 2018Article
- Age-dependent associations between telomere length and environmental conditions in roe deer.Biology letters · 2017Article
- No evidence for parental age effects on offspring leukocyte telomere length in free-living Soay sheep.Scientific reports · 2017Article
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12 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Mounting evidence suggests that average telomere length reflects previous stress and predicts subsequent survival across vertebrate species. In humans, leucocyte telomere length (LTL) is consistently shorter during adulthood in males than in females, although the causes of this sex difference and its generality to other mammals remain unknown. Here, we measured LTL in a cross-sectional sample of free-living Soay sheep and found shorter telomeres in males than in females in later adulthood (>3 years of age), but not in early life. This observation was not related to sex differences in growth or parasite burden, but we did find evidence for reduced LTL associated with increased horn growth in early life in males. Variation in LTL was independent of variation in the proportions of different leucocyte cell types, which are known to differ in telomere length. Our results provide the first evidence of sex differences in LTL from a wild mammal, but longitudinal studies are now required to determine whether telomere attrition rates or selective disappearance are responsible for these observed differences.
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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.