Is telomere length associated with mate choice in a songbird with a high rate of extra-pair paternity?

Telomere length is related to aging in many eukaryotes and the rate of telomere attrition has been suggested to reflect individual genetic quality. Telomere length could thus have implications for mate choice. We investigated telomere length variation in bluethroat Luscinia svecica families with mixed paternity, including social parents, extra-pair fathers and nestlings, testing whether telomere length is associated with social and/or extra-pair mate choice through assortative mating or selection of mates with relatively long telomeres. In adults, relative telomere length (rTL) did not differ between the sexes, nor between two age categories. In chicks, however, rTL decreased with body mass at sampling (an index of nestling age). We found a positive correlation between the rTL of social mates, suggesting assortative mating with respect to telomere length or a correlative thereof. However, extra-pair males did not differ from social mates in rTL, and accordingly there was also no differe...

端粒长度与众多真核生物的衰老进程密切相关，端粒损耗速率被认为可反映个体的遗传质量。因此，端粒长度可能对配偶选择产生重要影响。我们针对存在多重父权的蓝喉歌鸲（Luscinia svecica）家族开展了端粒长度变异研究，研究对象涵盖社会双亲、婚外父本以及雏鸟，旨在检验端粒长度是否通过选型交配或选择端粒相对较长的配偶，与社会配偶及/或婚外配偶选择存在关联。在成体个体中，两性间的相对端粒长度（relative telomere length，rTL）无显著差异，不同年龄组之间亦无明显区别。但在雏鸟群体中，采样时的体重（作为雏鸟日龄的指标）越大，其相对端粒长度则越低。我们发现社会配偶间的相对端粒长度呈正相关，提示二者在端粒长度或相关性状上存在选型交配现象。然而，婚外父本与社会配偶的相对端粒长度并无差异，因此也未观察到……