Heritable variation in telomere length predicts mortality in Soay sheep.

ABSTRACT: Telomere length (TL) is considered an important biomarker of whole-organism health and aging. Across humans and other vertebrates, short telomeres are associated with increased subsequent mortality risk, but the processes responsible for this correlation remain uncertain. A key unanswered question is whether TL-mortality associations arise due to positive effects of genes or early-life environment on both an individual's average lifetime TL and their longevity, or due to more immediate effects of environmental stressors on within-individual TL loss and increased mortality risk. Addressing this question requires longitudinal TL and life history data across the entire lifetimes of many individuals, which are difficult to obtain for long-lived species like humans. Using longitudinal data and

SUBMITTER: Froy H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8053994 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature