Early life growth and telomere length in wild boar piglets 2018

Life history theory predicts a trade-off between growth rates and lifespan, which is reflected by telomere length, a biomarker of somatic state. We investigated the correlation between telomere length and early life growth of wild boar piglets, Sus scrofa, kept under semi-natural conditions with high food availability to examine our hypothesis that increased pre-and post-natal growth will lead to telomere length attrition but that a high supply of nutrient may provide the possibility to compensate telomere loss via telomere repair mechanisms. As predicted, our data showed a clear negative correlation between birth body mass and initial telomere length: heavier neonates had shorter telomeres at birth, and we did not find an influence of the mother on initial telomere length. Body mass at birth correlated with body mass later in life and post-natal growth rate did not affect telomere length. We observed an increase in telomere length during postnatal development, suggesting that high food...