ArticleOecologia2017
Telomere length measurement by qPCR in birds is affected by storage method of blood samples.
Article in Oecologia, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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.
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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
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 46 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
- Telomere Length at Recruitment Predicts Lifespan and Lifetime Reproductive Success in the Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica).Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Improved Step-by-Step qPCR Method for Absolute Telomere Length Measurement.Methods and protocols · 2026Article
- Heritability and age-dependent changes in genetic variation of telomere length in a wild house sparrow population.Evolution letters · 2025Article
- Understanding the Influence of Early-Life Stressors on Social Interaction, Telomere Length, and Hair Cortisol Concentration in Homeless Kittens.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Immune response accelerated telomere shortening during early life stage of a passerine bird, the blue tit (Biology letters · 2025Article
- Directional selection, not the direction of selection, affects telomere length and copy number at ribosomal RNA loci.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Large mammal telomere length variation across ecoregions.BMC ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Preserving avian blood and DNA sampled in the wild: A survey of personal experiences.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Establishment of an Efficient Immortalization Strategy Using HMEJ-Based bInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2021Article
- Do the telomere ends justify the physical means?Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2021Article
- Telomere dynamics across the early life course: Findings from a longitudinal study in children.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2021Article
- Contrasting associations between nestling telomere length and pre and postnatal helpers' presence in a cooperatively breeding bird.Oecologia · 2021Article
- Short-term exposure to unmanned aerial vehicles does not alter stress responses in breeding tree swallows.Conservation physiology · 2020Article
- Cellular response to chronic psychosocial stress: Ten-year longitudinal changes in telomere length in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2019Article
- Article
- Divergent patterns of telomere shortening in tropical compared to temperate stonechats.Ecology and evolution · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Given the potential role of telomeres as biomarkers of individual health and ageing, there is an increasing interest in studying telomere dynamics in a wider range of taxa in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology. Measuring telomere length across the lifespan in wild animal systems is essential for testing these hypotheses, and may be aided by archived blood samples collected as part of longitudinal field studies. However, sample collection, storage, and DNA extraction methods may influence telomere length measurement, and it may, therefore, be difficult to balance consistency in sampling protocol with making the most of available samples. We used two complementary approaches to examine the impacts of sample storage method on measurements of relative telomere length (RTL) by qPCR, particularly focusing on FTA (Flinders Technology Associates) cards as a long-term storage solution. We used blood samples from wandering albatrosses collected over 14 years and stored in three different ways (n = 179), and also blood samples from captive zebra finches (n = 30) that were each stored using three different methods. Sample storage method influenced RTL in both studies, and samples on FTA cards had significantly shorter RTL measurements. There was no significant correlation between RTL measured in zebra finch blood on FTA cards and the same samples stored either as frozen whole blood or as extracted DNA. These results highlight the importance of consistency of sampling protocol, particularly in the context of long-term field studies, and suggest that FTA cards should not be used as a long-term storage solution to measure RTL without validation.
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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.