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578 results for “Telomeres”
Are urbanization and brood parasitism associated with differences in telomere lengths in song sparrows?
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Data for: Effects of long-term ethanol storage of blood samples on the estimation of telomere length
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Genetic variability and telomeres: Insights from a tropical avian hybrid zone
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Data from: Telomere length declines with age, but relates to immune function independent of age in a wild passerine
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Data from: Telomere heritability and parental age at conception effects in a wild avian population
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Scatter plot diagram to demonstrate correlation between relative telomere length (RTL) and age.
<p><strong>Figure S1. </strong>Scatter plot diagram to demonstrate correlation between relative telomere length (RTL) and age.</p>
Scatter plot diagram to demonstrate correlation between relative telomere length (RTL) and age.
<p><strong>Figure S1. </strong>Scatter plot diagram to demonstrate correlation between relative telomere length (RTL) and age.</p>
Data from: Increased glucocorticoid concentrations in early life cause mitochondrial inefficiency and short telomeres
<p>Telomeres are DNA structures that protect chromosome ends. However, telomeres shorten during cell replication and at critically low lengths can reduce cell replicative potential, induce cell senescence and decrease fitness. Stress exposure, which elevates glucocorticoid hormone concentrations, can exacerbate telomere attrition. This phenomenon has been attributed to increased oxidative stress generated by glucocorticoids ("oxidative stress hypothesis"). We recently instead suggested that glucocorticoids increase telomere attrition during stressful periods by reducing the resources available for telomere maintenance through changes in the metabolic machinery ("metabolic telomere attrition hypothesis"). Here we tested whether experimental increases in glucocorticoid levels affected telomeres and mitochondrial function in wild great tit (Parus major) nestlings during the energy-demanding early growth. We monitored resulting corticosterone (Cort) concentrations in plasma, and in red blood cells telomere lengths and mitochondrial metabolism (metabolic rate, proton leak, oxidative phosphorylation, maximal mitochondrial capacity and mitochondrial inefficiency). We assessed oxidative damage caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS) metabolites as well as the total non-enzymatic antioxidant protection in plasma. Compared with control (Ctrl) nestlings, Cort-nestlings had higher baseline corticosterone, shorter telomeres and higher mitochondrial metabolic rate. Importantly, Cort-nestlings showed increased mitochondrial proton leak, leading to a decreased ATP production efficiency. Treatment groups did not differ in oxidative damage or antioxidants. Hence, glucocorticoid-induced telomere attrition is associated with changes in mitochondrial metabolism, but not with ROS production. These findings support the "metabolic telomere attrition hypothesis" which proposes an active regulation of telomere length by glucocorticoids during stressful periods, which is mediated through metabolic rearrangements.</p>
Data from: Telomere attrition with age in a wild amphibian population
<p>Telomere shortening with age has been documented in many organisms, but few studies have reported telomere length measurements in amphibians, and no information is available for growth after metamorphosis, nor in wild populations. We provide both cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence of net telomere attrition with age in a wild amphibian population of natterjack toads (<em>Epidalea calamita</em>). Based on age-estimation by skeletochronology and qPCR telomere length measurements in the framework of an individual-based monitoring programme, we confirmed telomere attrition in recaptured males. Our results support that toads experience telomere attrition throughout<br> their ontogeny, and that most attrition occurs during the first 1–2 years.We did not find associations between telomere length and inbreeding or body condition. Our results on telomere length dynamics under natural conditions confirm telomere shortening with age in amphibians and provide quantification of wide telomere length variation within and among age-classes in a wild breeding population.</p>
Data from: Sex-specific effects of experimental ectoparasite infestation on telomere length in great tit nestlings
<p>Telomere length is a biomarker of biological ageing and lifespan in various vertebrate taxa. Evidence is accumulating that telomeres shorten more rapidly when an individual is exposed to environmental stressors. Parasites are potent selective agents that can cause physiological stress directly or indirectly through the activation of the host's immune system. Yet to date, empirical evidence for a role of parasites in telomere dynamics in natural populations is limited.</p> <p>Here we show experimentally that exposure to ectoparasitic hen fleas (<i>Ceratophyllus gallinae</i>) during growth results in shorter telomeres in female, but not male, great tit (<i>Parus major</i>) nestlings. Females had significantly longer telomeres than males when growing up in experimentally deparasitized nests but because of the sex-specific effects of parasitism on telomere length, this sexual dimorphism was absent in birds growing up in experimentally infested nests. Our results provide the first experimental evidence for a role of ectoparasitism in telomere dynamics in a natural vertebrate population, and suggest that the costs of infection manifest in sex-specific ways.</p>
A putative telomerase activator has tissue-specific effects on telomere length in a developing songbird
<p>There is good evidence that telomeres predict variation in health and longevity, yet it is unclear whether these patterns are causally derived from telomeres <i>per se</i>, in part because relatively little research directly manipulates telomere length during early life, when telomere shortening is most dynamic. Here, we test how the telomerase activator TA-65 (i.e., cycloastrogenol) affects telomere length in five tissues during the peak of growth in the wild tree swallow (<i>Tachycineta bicolor</i>). Following 8 days of oral TA-65 administration, chicks experienced telomere lengthening in the blood and accelerated feather growth, but no changes to mass over time. TA-65 did not affect telomere length in the brain or spleen and led to shorter telomeres in the liver and adrenals. This whole-organism experimental manipulation of telomere dynamics therefore reveals limitations to telomere protection and biological senescence. In doing so, this work advances our understanding of early-life telomere dynamics and their potential role in generating future variation in health and lifespan.</p>
Supplementary data for the article: Parental age does not influence offspring telomeres during early life in common gulls (Larus canus)
<p>R code and data for generating supplementary figures and tables for the article "Parental age does not influence offspring telomeres during early life in common gulls (Larus canus)"</p>
Data from: Offspring telomere length in the long lived Alpine swift is negatively related to the age of their biological father and foster mother
A growing body of studies is showing that offspring telomere length (TL) can be influenced by the age of their parents. Such a relationship might be explained by variation in TL at conception (gamete effect) and/or by alteration of early growth conditions in species providing parental care. In a long-lived bird with bi-parental care, the Alpine swift (Apus melba), we exchanged an uneven number of 2 to 4-day-old nestlings between pairs as part of a brood size manipulation. Nestling TL was measured at 50 days after hatching, which allowed investigation of the influence of the age of both their biological and foster parents on offspring TL, after controlling for the manipulation. Nestling TL was negatively related to the age of their biological father and foster mother. Nestling TL did not differ between enlarged and reduced broods. These findings suggest that offspring from older males were fertilized by gametes with shorter telomeres, presumably due to a greater cell division history or a longer accumulation of damage, and that older females may have provided poorer parental care to their offspring.
Anthropogenic noise is associated with telomere length and carotenoid-based coloration in free-living nestling songbirds
<p>Growing evidence suggests that anthropogenic noise has deleterious effects on the behavior and physiology of free-living animals. These effects may be particularly pronounced early in life, when developmental trajectories are sensitive to stressors, yet studies investigating developmental effects of noise exposure in free-living populations remain scarce. To elucidate the effects of noise exposure during development, we examined whether noise exposure is associated with shorter telomeres, duller carotenoid-based coloration and reduced body mass in nestlings of a common urban bird, the great tit (Parus major). We also assessed how the noise environment is related to reproductive success. We obtained long-term measurements of the noise environment, over a ~24-h period, and characterized both the amplitude (measured by LAeq, LA90, LA10, LAmax) and variance in noise levels, since more stochastic, as well as louder, noise regimes might be more likely to induce stress. In our urban population, noise levels varied substantially, with louder, but less variable, noise characteristic of areas adjacent to a highway. Noise levels were also highly repeatable, suggesting that individuals experience consistent differences in noise exposure. The amplitude of noise near nest boxes was associated with shorter telomeres among smaller, but not larger, brood members. In addition, carotenoid chroma and hue were positively associated with variance in average and maximum noise levels, and average reflectance was negatively associated with variance in background noise. Independent of noise, hue was positively related to telomere length. Nestling mass and reproductive success were unaffected by noise exposure. Results indicate that multiple dimensions of the noise environment, or factors associated with the noise environment, could affect the phenotype of developing organisms, that noise exposure, or correlated variables, might have the strongest effects on sensitive groups of individuals, and that carotenoid hue could serve as a signal of early-life telomere length.</p>
Drivers of longitudinal telomere dynamics in the long-lived bat species, Myotis myotis
<p>Age related telomere shortening is considered a hallmark of the ageing process. <a name="_Hlk10395680">However, a recent cross-sectional ageing study of relative telomere length (rTL) in bats failed to detect a relationship between rTL and age in the long-lived genus <i>Myotis</i> (<i>M. myotis</i> and <i>M. bechsteinii</i>), suggesting some other factors are responsible for driving telomere dynamics in these species</a>. Here, we test if longitudinal rTL data show signatures of age-associated telomere attrition in <i>M. myotis</i> and differentiate which intrinsic or extrinsic factors are likely to drive telomere length dynamics.<a name="_Hlk30419416"> </a><a name="_Hlk26682824"></a><a name="_Hlk14445670">Using qPCR, rTL was measured in 504 samples from a marked population, from Brittany, France</a>, captured between 2013 and 2016. These represent 174 individuals with an age range of 0 to 7+ years. We find no significant relationship between rTL and age (<i>p</i> = 0.762), but demonstrate that within-individual rTL is highly variable from year to year. To investigate the heritability of rTL, a population pedigree (n=1744) was constructed from genotype data generated from a 16 microsatellite multiplex, designed from an initial, low coverage, Illumina genome for <i>M. myotis</i>. Heritability was estimated in a Bayesian, mixed model framework, and showed that little of the observed variance in rTL <a name="_Hlk513597000">is heritable (<i>h<sup>2</sup>= </i>0.06 – 0.01)</a>. Rather, correlations of first differences, correlating yearly changes in telomere length and weather variables, demonstrate that, during the spring transition, average temperature, minimum temperature, rainfall and windspeed correlate with changes in longitudinal telomere dynamics. <a name="_Hlk10396857">As such, rTL may represent a useful biomarker to quantify the physiological impact of various environmental stressors in bats.</a></p>
Data from: Age-related sex differences in body condition and telomere dynamics of red-sided garter snakes
Life-history strategies vary dramatically between the sexes, which may drive divergence in sex-specific senescence and mortality rates. Telomeres are tandem nucleotide repeats that protect the ends of chromosomes from erosion during cell division. Telomeres have been implicated in senescence and mortality because they tend to shorten with stress, growth and age. We investigated age-specific telomere length in female and male red-sided garter snakes, Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis. We hypothesized that age-specific telomere length would differ between males and females given their divergent reproductive strategies. Male garter snakes emerge from hibernation with high levels of corticosterone, which facilitates energy mobilization to fuel mate-searching, courtship and mating behaviours during a two to four week aphagous breeding period at the den site. Conversely, females remain at the dens for only about 4 days and seem to invest more energy in growth and cellular maintenance, as they usually reproduce biennially. As male investment in reproduction involves a yearly bout of physiologically stressful activities, while females prioritize self-maintenance, we predicted male snakes would experience more age-specific telomere loss than females. We investigated this prediction using skeletochronology to determine the ages of individuals and qPCR to determine telomere length in a cross-sectional study. For both sexes, telomere length was positively related to body condition. Telomere length decreased with age in male garter snakes, but remained stable in female snakes. There was no correlation between telomere length and growth in either sex, suggesting that our results are a consequence of divergent selection on life histories of males and females. Different selection on the sexes may be the physiological consequence of the sexual dimorphism and mating system dynamics displayed by this species.
Data from: Sex- and tissue-specific differences in telomere length in a reptile
The usage of telomere length (TL) in blood as a proxy for the TL of other tissues relies on the assumption that telomere dynamics across all tissues are similar. However, telomere attrition can be caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS) which may vary with metabolic rate, which itself varies across organs depending upon the life history strategy of an organism. Thus we chose to measure the telomeres of various cell types in juvenile painted dragon lizards, Ctenophorus pictus, given their unusual life history strategy. Individuals typically only experience a single mating season. We measured the TL of male and female dragons using qPCR and observed that TL varied with tissue type and sex. Telomeres of blood cells were longer than those of liver, heart, brain, and spleen, and females had longer telomeres than males. Brain telomeres in males were approximately half the length of those in females. Telomeric attrition in the male brain may be due to the need for rapid learning of reproductive tactics (territory patrol and defence, mate-finding). Significant correlations between the TL of tissue types suggest that blood TL may be a useful proxy for the TL of other tissues. Our comparison of organ-specific telomere dynamics, the first in a reptile, suggests that the usage of blood TL as a proxy requires careful consideration of the life history strategy of the organism.
Data sets for Shiburah et al., "The absence of the Leishmania major telomerase TERT component links telomeres and cell homeostasis with infectivity"
<p>These files correspond to the figures and information contained in Shiburah et al., "The absence of the <em>Leishmania major</em> telomerase TERT component links telomeres and cell homeostasis with infectivity"</p>
Supplemental datasets for 'A near telomere-to-telomere phased reference assembly for the male mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei)'
<p>The endangered mountain gorilla <em>Gorilla beringei beringei</em> faces numerous threats to its survival, highlighting the urgent need for genomic resources to aid conservation efforts. Here, we present a near telomere-to-telomere, haplotype-phased reference genome assembly for a male mountain gorilla generated using Pacbio HiFi and Oxford Nanopore Ultralong data. The resulting assembly exhibits exceptional contiguity, with contig N50 of ~ 95 Mbps for the combined pseudohaplotype (3,540,458,497 bps, and 56.5 Mbps (3.1 Gbps) and 51.0 Mbps (3.2 Gbps) for the maternal and paternal haplotypes and an average QV of 65.15 (error rate = 3.1 x 10-7). These represent substantial improvements over most other available primate genomes. This high-quality reference genome provides an invaluable resource for future studies on gorilla evolution, adaptation, and conservation, ultimately contributing to the long-term survival of this iconic species.</p> <p>A preprint for this work is available at bioRXiv, doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.28.620258</p>
Artificial size selection experiment reveals telomere length dynamics and fitness consequences in a wild passerine
<p>Telomere dynamics could underlie life-history trade-offs among growth, size, and longevity, but our ability to quantify such processes in natural, unmanipulated populations is limited. We investigated how 4 years of artificial selection for either larger or smaller tarsus length, a proxy for body size, affected early-life telomere length (TL) and several components of fitness in two insular populations of wild house sparrows over a study period of 11 years. The artificial selection was expected to shift the populations away from their optimal body size and increase the phenotypic variance in body size. Artificial selection for larger individuals caused TL to decrease, but there was little evidence that TL increased when selecting for smaller individuals. There was a negative correlation between nestling TL and tarsus length under both selection regimes. Males had longer telomeres than females and there was a negative effect of harsh weather on TL. We then investigated whether changes in TL might underpin fitness effects due to the deviation from the optimal body size. Mortality analyses indicated disruptive selection on TL because both short and long early-life telomeres tended to be associated with the lowest mortality rates. In addition, there was a tendency for a negative association between TL and annual reproductive success, but only in the population where body size was increased experimentally. Our results suggest that natural selection for optimal body size in the wild may be associated with changes in TL during growth, which is known to be linked to longevity in some bird species.</p>
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.