Offspring telomere length in the long lived Alpine swift is negatively related to the age of their biological father and foster mother.

ABSTRACT: 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

SUBMITTER: Criscuolo F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5627168 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature