Parental age does not influence offspring telomeres during early life in common gulls (Larus canus) ...

• Main Authors: Sepp, Tuul, Meitern, Richard, Heidinger, Britt, Noreikiene, Kristina, Rattiste, Kalev, Hõrak, Peeter, Saks, Lauri, Kittilson, Jeffrey, Urvik, Janek, Giraudeau, Mathieu
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2021
• Subjects: FOS Natural sciences; Larus canus
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2ngf1vhn5; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.2ngf1vhn5

Parental age can affect offspring telomere length through heritable and epigenetic-like effects, but at what stage during development these effects are established is not well known. To address this, we conducted a cross-fostering experiment in common gulls (Larus canus) that enabled us distinguish between pre- and post-natal parental age effects on offspring telomere length. Whole clutches were exchanged after clutch completion within and between parental age classes (young and old) and blood samples were collected from chicks at hatching and during the fastest growth phase (11 days later) to measure telomeres. Neither the ages of the natal nor the foster parents’ predicted the telomere length or the change in telomere lengths of their chicks. Telomere length was repeatable within chicks, but increased across development (repeatability = 0.55, Intraclass Correlation Coefficient within sampling events 0.934). Telomere length and the change in telomere length were not predicted by post-natal growth rate. ... : 1. Field methods. We conducted the study between the end of May – early June 2017 on a free-living, known-age breeding population of common gulls located on Kakrarahu islet in Matsalu National Park on the west coast of Estonia (58°46' N, 23°26' E). A total of 40 nests were included in the experiment. Nests and experimental groups were chosen based on the age of the mother, but the father’s age was also known. Common gulls mates assortatively with respect to age and the ages of the parents were highly positively correlated (Spearman r=0.74, p<0.0001) Half of the breeders (n = 20 females) were young, on their 1st-3rd breeding event (age exactly 5 years). Another half (n = 20 females) were middle-aged or older (15-30 years old, average age 18 ± 3.37 (SD) years). In total, 19 males were 5-7 years old (average age 5.52 ± 0.80 (SD) years) and were grouped as “young”, 21 males were 10+ years (average age 16.29 ± 5.58 (SD) years) old and were grouped as “old”. We cross-fostered whole clutches right after the ...