ArticleMolecular ecology2020
Sex-specific telomere length and dynamics in relation to age and reproductive success in Cory's shearwaters.
Article in Molecular ecology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- A meta-analysis on the heritability of vertebrate telomere length.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2022Pooled it
- Reproductive Drivers of Temporal Telomere Dynamics in Female Tree Swallows.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Telomere Length Is Determined by Intrinsic Factors and Is Shortened During Drought Years inEcology and evolution · 2026Article
- Short- and long-term costs of reproduction revealed by telomere dynamics in wild greater horseshoe bats.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Sex Differences in Telomere Length in a Bat With Female-Biased Longevity.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Telomere- and oxidative stress dynamics in Psittacidae species with different longevity trajectories.GeroScience · 2025Article
- Longer telomeres during early life predict higher lifetime reproductive success in females but not males.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Review
- Costs of reproduction and migration are paid in later return to the colony, not in physical condition, in a long-lived seabird.Oecologia · 2021Article
- Sex-specific telomere length and dynamics in relation to age and reproductive success in Cory's shearwaters.Molecular ecology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Individuals in free-living animal populations generally differ substantially in reproductive success, lifespan and other fitness-related traits, but the molecular mechanisms underlying this variation are poorly understood. Telomere length and dynamics are candidate traits explaining this variation, as long telomeres predict a higher survival probability and telomere loss has been shown to reflect experienced "life stress." However, telomere dynamics among very long-lived species are unresolved. Additionally, it is generally not well understood how telomeres relate to reproductive success or sex. We measured telomere length and dynamics in erythrocytes to assess their relationship to age, sex and reproduction in Cory's shearwaters (Calonectris borealis), a long-lived seabird, in the context of a long-term study. Adult males had on average 231 bp longer telomeres than females, independent of age. In females, telomere length changed relatively little with age, whereas male telomere length declined significantly. Telomere shortening within males from one year to the next was three times higher than the interannual shortening rate based on cross-sectional data of males. Past long-term reproductive success was sex-specifically reflected in age-corrected telomere length: males with on average high fledgling production were characterized by shorter telomeres, whereas successful females had longer telomeres, and we discuss hypotheses that may explain this contrast. In conclusion, telomere length and dynamics in relation to age and reproduction are sex-dependent in Cory's shearwaters and these findings contribute to our understanding of what characterises individual variation in fitness.
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