Data from: Offspring telomere length in the long lived Alpine swift is negatively related to the age of their biological father and foster mother

A growing body of studies is showing that offspring telomere length (TL) can be influenced by the age of their parents. Such relationship might be explained by variation in TL at conception (gamete effect) and/or by alteration of early growth condition in species providing parental care. In a long-lived bird species with bi-parental care, the Alpine swift (Apus melba), we exchanged between pairs an uneven number of 2 to 4-day-old nestlings as part of a brood size manipulation. Nestling TL was measured at 50 days after hatching, which allowed investigating the influence of the age of both their biological and foster parents on offspring TL after controlling for the manipulation. Nestling TL was negatively related to the age of their biological father and of their foster mother. Nestling TL did not differ between enlarged and reduced broods. These findings suggest that offspring from older males were fertilised by gametes with shorter telomeres, presumably due to a greater cell division history or a longer accumulation of damage, and that older females were providing poorer parental care to their offspring.日益增多的研究表明，子代端粒长度（telomere length, TL）会受到亲本年龄的影响。该关联可通过受孕阶段的端粒长度变异（配子效应，gamete effect），或是在提供育幼行为的物种中早期生长环境的改变来解释。本研究以一种施行双亲育幼的长寿鸟类——高山雨燕（Apus melba）为研究对象，通过交换不同数量的2至4日龄雏鸟，开展窝雏数操控实验。我们在雏鸟孵化后50天时测定其端粒长度，借此在控制窝雏数操控变量的条件下，探究亲生父母与养父母的年龄对子代端粒长度的影响。雏鸟端粒长度与其亲生父亲的年龄、养父母的年龄均呈显著负相关关系。扩群与减群实验组的雏鸟端粒长度并无显著差异。上述结果提示，由高龄雄性产生的配子所受精的子代端粒长度更短，这可能源于细胞分裂次数更多或是损伤积累时长更长；同时高龄雌性为子代提供的育幼质量更低。