Sex-specific effects of parasites on telomere dynamics in a short-lived passerine-the blue tit.

ABSTRACT: Parasitic infections potentially drive host's life-histories since they can have detrimental effects on host's fitness. Telomere dynamics is a candidate mechanism to underlie life-history trade-offs and as such may correlate with observed fitness reduction in infected animals. We examined the relationship of chronic infection with two genera of haemosporidians causing avian malaria and malaria-like disease with host's telomere length (TL) in a longitudinal study of free-ranging blue tits. The observed overall infection prevalence was 80% and increased with age, constituting a potentially serious selective pressure in our population. We found longer telomeres in individuals infected with a parasite causing lesser blood pathologies i.e. Haemoproteus compared to Plasmodium genus, but this onl

SUBMITTER: Sudyka J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6353807 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature