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Early-life telomere length predicts life-history strategy and reproductive senescence in a threatened wild songbird

Morland, Fay; Ewen, John G; Simons, Mirre JP; Brekke, Patricia; Hemmings, Nicola; (2023) Early-life telomere length predicts life-history strategy and reproductive senescence in a threatened wild songbird. Molecular Ecology 10.1111/mec.16981. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

Telomeres are well known for their associations with lifespan and ageing across diverse taxa. Early-life telomere length can be influenced by developmental conditions and has been shown positively affect lifetime reproductive success in a limited number of studies. Whether these effects are caused by a change in lifespan, reproductive rate or perhaps most importantly reproductive senescence is unclear. Using long-term data on female breeding success from a threatened songbird (the hihi, Notiomystis cincta), we show that the early-life telomere length of individuals predicts the presence and rate of future senescence of key reproductive traits: clutch size and hatching success. In contrast, senescence of fledging success is not associated with early-life telomere length, which may be due to the added influence of biparental care at this stage. Early-life telomere length does not predict lifespan or lifetime reproductive success in this species. Females may therefore change their reproductive allocation strategy depending on their early developmental conditions, which we hypothesise are reflected in their early-life telomere length. Our results offer new insights on the role that telomeres play in reproductive senescence and individual fitness and suggest telomere length can be used as a predictor for future life history in threatened species.

Type: Article
Title: Early-life telomere length predicts life-history strategy and reproductive senescence in a threatened wild songbird
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1111/mec.16981
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.1111/mec.16981
Language: English
Additional information: © 2023 The Authors. Molecular Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: fitness, life history, reproduction, senescence, telomeres
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10170115
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