Data from The relationship between telomere length and mortality risk in non-model vertebrate systems: a meta-analysis

Telomere length (TL) has become a biomarker of increasing interest within ecology and evolutionary biology, and has been found to predict subsequent survival in some recent avian studies but not others. Here, we undertake the first formal meta-analysis to test whether there is an overall association between TL and subsequent mortality risk in vertebrates other than humans and model laboratory rodents. We identified 27 suitable studies and obtained standardized estimates of the hazard ratio associated with TL from each. We performed a meta-analysis on these estimates and found an overall significant negative association implying that short telomeres are associated with increased mortality risk, which was robust to evident publication bias. While we found that heterogeneity in the hazard ratios was not explained by sex, follow-up period, maximum lifespan or the age group of the study animals, the TL–mortality risk association was stronger in studies using qPCR compared to terminal restriction fragment methodologies. Our results provide support for a consistent association between short telomeres and increased mortality risk in birds, but also highlight the need for more research into non-avian vertebrates and the reasons why different telomere measurement methods may yield different results.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Understanding diversity in telomere dynamics’.

端粒长度（Telomere Length, TL）已成为生态学与进化生物学领域日益受到关注的生物标志物，过往部分鸟类研究显示其可预测受试个体的后续生存状态，但另有部分研究未能得到一致结论。本研究首次开展正式荟萃分析，以检验除人类与模式实验啮齿类之外的脊椎动物中，端粒长度与后续死亡风险是否存在总体关联。我们共筛选得到27项符合标准的研究，并从每项研究中提取了与端粒长度相关的标准化风险比估计值。基于上述估计值开展的荟萃分析结果显示，二者间存在显著的总体负相关关系，即较短的端粒与更高的死亡风险相关，且该结果在校正明显的发表偏倚后仍保持稳健。尽管我们发现，风险比的异质性无法通过研究动物的性别、随访时长、最大寿命或受试动物年龄组进行解释，但相较于末端限制性片段（terminal restriction fragment, TRF）技术，采用定量聚合酶链式反应（quantitative PCR, qPCR）的研究中，端粒长度与死亡风险的关联强度更强。本研究结果为鸟类中较短端粒与更高死亡风险间存在稳定关联的结论提供了支持，同时也凸显了针对非鸟类脊椎动物开展更多研究的必要性，以及探究不同端粒测量方法导致结果差异的原因的重要性。本文属于“端粒动态多样性解析（Understanding diversity in telomere dynamics）”专题议题的一部分。