Data from: On the comparative biology of mammalian telomeres: telomere length co-evolves with body mass, lifespan and cancer risk

Telomeres, the short repetitive DNA sequences that cap the ends of linear
chromosomes, shorten during cell division and are implicated in senescence
in most species. Telomerase can rebuild telomeres but is repressed in many
mammals that exhibit replicative senescence, presumably as a tumor
suppression mechanism. It is therefore important to understand the
co-evolution of telomere biology and life-history traits that has shaped
the diversity of senescence patterns across species. Gomes et al. (2011)
produced a large data set on telomere length (TL), telomerase activity,
body mass and lifespan among 57 mammal species. We re-analyzed their data
using the same phylogenetic multiple regressions and with several
additional analyses to test the robustness of findings. We found
substantial inconsistencies in our results compared to Gomes et
al.'s. Consistent with Gomes et al. we found an inverse association
between TL and lifespan. Contrary to the analyses in Gomes et al., we
found a generally robust inverse association between TL and mass, and only
weak non-robust evidence for an association between telomerase activity
and mass. These results suggest that shorter TL may have been
selected for in larger and longer-lived species – likely as a mechanism to
suppress cancer. We support this hypothesis by showing that longer
telomeres predict higher cancer risk across 22 species. Furthermore, we
find that domesticated species have longer telomeres. Our results call
into question past interpretations of the co-evolution of telomere biology
and life-history traits and stress the need for careful attention to model
construction.