ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2017
Pale and dark morphs of tawny owls show different patterns of telomere dynamics in relation to disease status.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- CumulativeFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- Does colour-morph variation in metabolic physiology and oxidative stress match morph-specific life-history strategies?Oecologia · 2025Article
- Lifetime Fitness Variation Across the Geographical Range in a Colour Polymorphic Species.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- The Impact of HIV and Parasite Single Infection and Coinfection on Telomere Length: A Systematic Review.Current issues in molecular biology · 2024Review
- No correlative evidence of costs of infection or immunity on leucocyte telomere length in a wild population of Soay sheep.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Pleiotropic effects of melanin pigmentation: haemoparasite infection intensity but not telomere length is associated with plumage morph in black sparrowhawks.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Experimental ectoparasite removal has a sex-specific effect on nestling telomere length.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Biomarkers of cellular aging during a controlled human malaria infection.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Herpesvirus Infection in a Breeding Population of Two CoexistingAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- Transcriptome reveals genes involving in black skin color formation of ducks.Genes & genomics · 2021Article
- Haemoproteus syrnii (Haemosporida: Haemoproteidae) in owls from Brazil: morphological and molecular characterization, potential cryptic species, and exo-erythrocytic stages.Parasitology research · 2021Article
- No sex differences in adult telomere length across vertebrates: a meta-analysis.Royal Society open science · 2020Article
- Telomere shortening as a mechanism of long-term cost of infectious diseases in natural animal populations.Biology letters · 2019Article
- Exogenous glucocorticoids amplify the costs of infection by reducing resistance and tolerance, but effects are mitigated by co-infection.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Sex-specific effects of parasites on telomere dynamics in a short-lived passerine-the blue tit.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2019Article
- Cellular aging dynamics after acute malaria infection: A 12-month longitudinal study.Aging cell · 2018Article
- Pale and dark morphs of tawny owls show different patterns of telomere dynamics in relation to disease status.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2017Article
- Cold winters have morph-specific effects on natal dispersal distance in a wild raptor.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
- Sex allocation is color morph-specific and associated with fledging condition in a wild bird.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
- Reproductive senescence in a polymorphic raptor: phenotypic, sex, and environmental effects.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Parasites are expected to exert long-term costs on host fecundity and longevity. Understanding the consequences of heritable polymorphic variation in disease defence in wild populations is essential in order to predict evolutionary responses to changes in disease risk. Telomeres have been found to shorten faster in malaria-diseased individuals compared with healthy ones with negative effects on longevity and thereby fitness. Here, we study the impact of haemosporidian blood parasites on telomere dynamics in tawny owls, which display a highly heritable plumage colour polymorphism. Previously, it has been shown that blood parasites have morph-specific impact on body mass maintenance. Here, we show that telomeres shortened faster in individuals with shorter breeding lifespan. Telomere length was negatively associated with the degree of pheomelanic brown coloration and shorter in infected than uninfected individuals. The rate of telomere shortening between breeding seasons was faster in darker pheomelanic individuals and suppression of parasite intensity between seasons was associated with faster telomere shortening in the paler individuals but not in darker ones. We propose that morph-specific physiological profiles cause differential telomere shortening and that this is likely to be a mechanism involved in previously documented environment-driven survival selection against the pheomelanic morph in this population.
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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.