ArticleRoyal Society open science2020
No sex differences in adult telomere length across vertebrates: a meta-analysis.
Article in Royal Society open science, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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.
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.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Defying Expectations: Extended Lifespan and Age-Related Telomere Dynamics in the Tropical Bat Species,Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Is Telomere Length Optimized in Hatchling Sand Lizards?Evolution & development · 2025Article
- Sex Differences in Telomere Length in a Bat With Female-Biased Longevity.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Telomere dynamics in maturing frogs vary among organs.Biology letters · 2025Article
- A short-lived fish with long-lasting effects: hallmarks of aging inFrontiers in aging · 2025Review
- 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
- Telomeres and telomerase: active but complex players in life-history decisions.Biogerontology · 2024Review
- Sex and early-life conditions shape telomere dynamics in an ectotherm.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- Telomere Length Variation in Model Bryophytes.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Cross-tissue comparison of telomere length and quality metrics of DNA among individuals aged 8 to 70 years.PloS one · 2024Article
- Impacts of radiation exposure, hindlimb unloading, and recovery on murine skeletal muscle cell telomere length.NPJ microgravity · 2023Article
- Longitudinal telomere dynamics within natural lifespans of a wild bird.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Experimental ectoparasite removal has a sex-specific effect on nestling telomere length.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Low Antioxidant Glutathione Levels Lead to Longer Telomeres: A Sex-Specific Link to Longevity?Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2023Article
- An approach to the effects of longevity, sexual maturity, and reproduction on telomere length and oxidative stress in different Psittacidae species.Frontiers in genetics · 2023Article
- Transmissible cancer and longitudinal telomere dynamics in Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii).Molecular ecology · 2022Article
- Age group DNA methylation differences in lemon sharks (Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Sex-specific aging in animals: Perspective and future directions.Aging cell · 2022Review
- Longer telomeres during early life predict higher lifetime reproductive success in females but not males.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In many mammalian species, females live on average longer than males. In humans, women have consistently longer telomeres than men, and this has led to speculation that sex differences in telomere length (TL) could play a role in sex differences in longevity. To address the generality and drivers of patterns of sex differences in TL across vertebrates, we performed meta-analyses across 51 species. We tested two main evolutionary hypotheses proposed to explain sex differences in TL, namely the heterogametic sex disadvantage and the sexual selection hypotheses. We found no support for consistent sex differences in TL between males and females among mammal, bird, fish and reptile species. This absence of sex differences in TL across different classes of vertebrates does not support the heterogametic sex disadvantage hypothesis. Likewise, the absence of any negative effect of sexual size dimorphism on male TL suggests that sexual selection is not likely to mediate the magnitude of sex differences in TL across vertebrates. Finally, the comparative analyses we conducted did not detect any association between sex differences in TL and sex differences in longevity, which does not support the idea that sex differences in TL could explain the observed sex differences in longevity.
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Registered trials
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