Data from: Primers to highly conserved elements optimized for qPCR-based telomere length measurements in vertebrates

Telomere length dynamics are an established biomarker of health and aging
in animals. The study of telomeres in numerous species has been
facilitated by methods to measure telomere length by real-time
quantitative PCR (qPCR). In this method, telomere length is determined by
quantifying the amount of telomeric DNA repeats in a sample and
normalizing this to the total amount of genomic DNA. This normalization
requires the development of genomic reference primers suitable for qPCR,
which remains challenging in non-model organism with genomes that have not
been sequenced. Here we report reference primers that can be used in qPCR
to measure telomere lengths in any vertebrate species. We designed primer
pairs to amplify genetic elements that are highly conserved between
evolutionarily distant taxa and tested them in species that span the
vertebrate tree of life. We report five primer pairs that meet the
specificity and reproducibility standards of qPCR. In addition, we
demonstrate an approach to choose the best primers for a given species by
testing the primers on multiple individuals within a species and then
applying an established computational tool. These reference primers can
facilitate qPCR-based telomere length measurements in any vertebrate
species of ecological or economic interest.