Data from: Telomere length is highly heritable and independent of growth rate manipulated by temperature in field crickets

Many organisms are capable of growing faster than they do. Restrained
growth rate has functionally been explained by negative effects on
lifespan of accelerated growth. However, the underlying mechanisms remain
elusive. Telomere attrition has been proposed as a causal agent and has
been mostly studied in endothermic vertebrates. We established that
telomeres exist as chromosomal-ends in a model insect, the field cricket
G. campestris, using terminal restriction fragment and Bal 31 methods.
Telomeres comprised TTAGGn repeats of 38kb on average, more than four
times longer than the telomeres of human infants. Bal 31 assays confirmed
that telomeric repeats were located at the chromosome-ends. We tested
whether rapid growth between day 1, day 65, day 85, and day 125 is
achieved at the expense of telomere length by comparing nymphs reared at
23°C with their siblings reared at 28°C, which grew three times faster in
the initial 65 days. Surprisingly, neither temperature treatment nor age
affected average telomere length. Concomitantly, the broad sense
heritability of telomere length was remarkably high at ~100%. Despite high
heritability, the evolvability (a mean-standardized measure of genetic
variance) was low relative to that of body mass. We discuss our findings
in the context of telomere evolution. Some important features of
vertebrate telomere biology are evident in an insect species dating back
to the Triassic. The apparent lack of an effect of growth rate on telomere
length is puzzling, suggesting strong telomere length maintenance during
the growth phase. Whether such maintenance of telomere length is adaptive
remains elusive and requires further study investigating the links with
fitness in the wild.