Article ; Online: The evolution of early-life telomere length, pace-of-life and telomere-chromosome length dynamics in birds.
2023 Volume 32, Issue 11, Page(s) 2898–2912
Abstract: Telomeres, the short DNA sequences that protect chromosome ends, are an ancient molecular structure, which is highly conserved across most eukaryotes. Species differ in their telomere lengths, but the causes of this variation are not well understood. ... ...
| Abstract | Telomeres, the short DNA sequences that protect chromosome ends, are an ancient molecular structure, which is highly conserved across most eukaryotes. Species differ in their telomere lengths, but the causes of this variation are not well understood. Here, we demonstrate that mean early-life telomere length is an evolutionary labile trait across 57 bird species (representing 35 families in 12 orders) with the greatest trait diversity found among passerines. Among these species, telomeres are significantly shorter in fast-lived than in slow-lived species, suggesting that telomere length may have evolved to mediate trade-offs between physiological requirements underlying the diversity of pace-of-life strategies in birds. This association was attenuated when excluding studies that may include interstitial telomeres in the estimation of mean telomere length. Curiously, within some species, larger individual chromosome size predicts longer telomere lengths on that chromosome, leading to the hypothesis that telomere length also covaries with chromosome length across species. We show that longer mean chromosome length or genome size tends to be associated with longer mean early-life telomere length (measured across all chromosomes) within a phylogenetic framework constituting up to 31 bird species. These associations were strengthened when excluding highly influential outliers. However, sensitivity analyses suggested that they were susceptible to sample size effects and not robust to the exclusion of studies that may include interstitial telomeres. Combined, our analyses generalize patterns previously found within a few species and provide potential adaptive explanations for the 10-fold variation in telomere lengths observed among birds. |
|---|---|
| MeSH term(s) | Birds/classification ; Birds/genetics ; Animals ; Telomere Homeostasis ; Chromosome Structures/genetics ; Phylogeny ; Genome Size/genetics ; Cytogenetic Analysis ; Life History Traits |
| Language | English |
| Publishing date | 2023-03-14 |
| Publishing country | England |
| Document type | Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't |
| ZDB-ID | 1126687-9 |
| ISSN | 1365-294X ; 0962-1083 |
| ISSN (online) | 1365-294X |
| ISSN | 0962-1083 |
| DOI | 10.1111/mec.16907 |
| Database | MEDical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System OnLINE |
Full text online
More links
Kategorien
In stock of ZB MED Bonn / Germany
| Z 2005/723: Show issues |
Order via subito
This service is chargeable due to the Delivery terms set by subito. Orders including an article and supplementary material will be classified as separate orders. In these cases, fees will be demanded for each order.
Inter-library loan at ZB MED
Your chosen title can be delivered directly to ZB MED Cologne location if you are registered as a user at ZB MED Cologne.