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 a relationship might be explained by variation in TL at conception (gamete effect) and/or by alteration of early growth conditions in species providing parental care. In a long-lived bird with bi-parental care, the Alpine swift (Apus melba), we exchanged an uneven number of 2 to 4-day-old nestlings between pairs as part of a brood size manipulation. Nestling TL was measured at 50 days after hatching, which allowed investigation of 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 foster mother. Nestling TL did not differ between enlarged and reduced broods. These findings suggest that offspring from older males were fertilized by gametes with shorter telomeres, presumably due to a greater cell division history or a longer accumulation of damage, and that older females may have provided poorer parental care to their offspring.

越来越多的研究表明，子代端粒长度（telomere length, TL）会受到亲本年龄的影响。这一关联可通过受孕时的端粒长度差异（配子效应），以及存在亲代抚育行为的物种的早期生长环境改变来解释。本研究针对具有双亲抚育行为的长寿鸟类——高山雨燕（Apus melba）开展实验：作为窝雏数操控实验的一部分，我们在配对繁殖组间交换了数量不等的2至4日龄雏鸟。我们在雏鸟孵化后50天时测量其端粒长度，从而得以在控制实验操控变量的前提下，探究亲生父母与养父母的年龄对子代端粒长度的影响。结果显示，雏鸟端粒长度与亲生父亲的年龄以及养母的年龄呈负相关关系；而窝雏数扩大组与缩减组的雏鸟端粒长度并无显著差异。上述研究结果表明，年龄较大的雄性个体产生的配子端粒更短，这可能源于更高的细胞分裂次数或更长时间的损伤积累；同时年龄较大的雌性个体可能为子代提供了更差的亲代抚育。