Titre
Effects of brood size manipulation and common origin on phenotype and telomere length in nestling collared flycatchers.
Type
article
Institution
UNIL/CHUV/Unisanté + institutions partenaires
Périodique
Auteur(s)
Voillemot, M.
Auteure/Auteur
Hine, K.
Auteure/Auteur
Zahn, S.
Auteure/Auteur
Criscuolo, F.
Auteure/Auteur
Gustafsson, L.
Auteure/Auteur
Doligez, B.
Auteure/Auteur
Bize, P.
Auteure/Auteur
Liens vers les personnes
Liens vers les unités
ISSN
1472-6785
Statut éditorial
Publié
Date de publication
2012
Volume
12
Numéro
1
Première page
17
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Langue
anglais
Résumé
BACKGROUND: Evidence is accumulating that telomere length is a good predictor of life expectancy, especially early in life, thus calling for determining the factors that affect telomere length at this stage. Here, we investigated the relative influence of early growth conditions and origin (genetics and early maternal effects) on telomere length of collared flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis) at fledging. We experimentally transferred hatchlings among brood triplets to create reduced, control (i.e. unchanged final nestling number) and enlarged broods.
RESULTS: Although our treatment significantly affected body mass at fledging, we found no evidence that increased sibling competition affected nestling tarsus length and telomere length. However, mixed models showed that brood triplets explained a significant part of the variance in body mass (18%) and telomere length (19%), but not tarsus length (13%), emphasizing that unmanipulated early environmental factors influenced telomere length. These models also revealed low, but significant, heritability of telomere length (h(2) = 0.09). For comparison, the heritability of nestling body mass and tarsus length was 0.36 and 0.39, respectively, which was in the range of previously published estimates for those two traits in this species.
CONCLUSION: Those findings in a wild bird population demonstrate that telomere length at the end of the growth period is weakly, but significantly, determined by genetic and/or maternal factors taking place before hatching. However, we found no evidence that the brood size manipulation experiment, and by extension the early growth conditions, influenced nestling telomere length. The weak heritability of telomere length suggests a close association with fitness in natural populations.
RESULTS: Although our treatment significantly affected body mass at fledging, we found no evidence that increased sibling competition affected nestling tarsus length and telomere length. However, mixed models showed that brood triplets explained a significant part of the variance in body mass (18%) and telomere length (19%), but not tarsus length (13%), emphasizing that unmanipulated early environmental factors influenced telomere length. These models also revealed low, but significant, heritability of telomere length (h(2) = 0.09). For comparison, the heritability of nestling body mass and tarsus length was 0.36 and 0.39, respectively, which was in the range of previously published estimates for those two traits in this species.
CONCLUSION: Those findings in a wild bird population demonstrate that telomere length at the end of the growth period is weakly, but significantly, determined by genetic and/or maternal factors taking place before hatching. However, we found no evidence that the brood size manipulation experiment, and by extension the early growth conditions, influenced nestling telomere length. The weak heritability of telomere length suggests a close association with fitness in natural populations.
PID Serval
serval:BIB_2F2AA6044528
PMID
Open Access
Oui
Date de création
2012-08-13T14:13:36.592Z
Date de création dans IRIS
2025-05-20T18:18:07Z
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Nom
BIB_2F2AA6044528.P001.pdf
Version du manuscrit
preprint
Taille
382.92 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
PID Serval
serval:BIB_2F2AA6044528.P001
URN
urn:nbn:ch:serval-BIB_2F2AA60445285
Somme de contrôle
(MD5):0ffe95e3572ba9465f74538dccd18e8b