ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2018
Heritability of telomere variation: it is all about the environment!
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A meta-analysis on the heritability of vertebrate telomere length.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2022Pooled it
- Telomere-associated non-malignant pulmonary diseases: Pathogenic mechanisms and therapeutic strategies.Acta pharmaceutica Sinica. B · 2026Review
- Environmental and Genetic Determinants of Early-Life Telomere Length in Tree Swallows.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- A telomere-to-telomere gapfree genome assembly of Triplophysa stoliczkae (Tibetan stone loach, family Nemacheilidae).Scientific data · 2026Article
- Extracurricular physical activity and telomere length in childhood: findings from the INMA study.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Association of leukocyte telomere length with anti-HBsAg antibody titer in Hepatitis-B recovered patients from the Pakistani population.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Heritability and age-dependent changes in genetic variation of telomere length in a wild house sparrow population.Evolution letters · 2025Article
- Prenatal irisin is inversely related to the term placental telomere length.BMC research notes · 2025Article
- Reproductive aging weakens offspring survival and constrains the telomerase response to herpesvirus in Pacific oysters.Science advances · 2024Article
- Does Effective Population Size Govern Evolutionary Differences in Telomere Length?Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Telomere Dynamics in Livestock.Biology · 2023Review
- Longitudinal telomere dynamics within natural lifespans of a wild bird.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Sedentary Behaviour and Telomere Length Shortening during Early Childhood: Evidence from the Multicentre Prospective INMA Cohort Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Does pre-spawning catch and release angling affect offspring telomere dynamics in Atlantic salmon?Conservation physiology · 2023Article
- Transmissible cancer and longitudinal telomere dynamics in Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii).Molecular ecology · 2022Article
- Lizards from warm and declining populations are born with extremely short telomeres.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Early-life conditions impact juvenile telomere length, but do not predict later life-history strategies or fitness in a wild vertebrate.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Hot and dry conditions predict shorter nestling telomeres in an endangered songbird: Implications for population persistence.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Genetic, parental and lifestyle factors influence telomere length.Communications biology · 2022Article
- Plasticity, pleiotropy and fitness trade-offs in Arabidopsis genotypes with different telomere lengths.The New phytologist · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Individual differences in telomere length have been linked to survival and senescence. Understanding the heritability of telomere length can provide important insight into individual differences and facilitate our understanding of the evolution of telomeres. However, to gain accurate and meaningful estimates of telomere heritability it is vital that the impact of the environment, and how this may vary, is understood and accounted for. The aim of this review is to raise awareness of this important, but much under-appreciated point. We outline the factors known to impact telomere length and discuss the fact that telomere length is a trait that changes with age. We highlight statistical methods that can separate genetic from environmental effects and control for confounding variables. We then review how well previous studies in vertebrate populations including humans have taken these factors into account. We argue that studies to date either use methodological techniques that confound environmental and genetic effects, or use appropriate methods but lack sufficient power to fully separate these components. We discuss potential solutions. We conclude that we need larger studies, which also span longer time periods, to account for changing environmental effects, if we are to determine meaningful estimates of the genetic component of telomere length.This article is part of the theme issue 'Understanding diversity in telomere dynamics'.
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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.