Data from: Reduced telomere length in offspring of old fathers in a long-lived seabird

• Main Authors: Bouwhuis, Sandra, Verhulst, Simon, Bauch, Christina, Vedder, Oscar
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2018
• Subjects: parental effect; life history theory; natural population; Lansing effect; Telomeres; Sterna hirundo
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mc763v6

Evidence for transgenerational effects of senescence, whereby offspring from older parents have a reduced lifetime reproductive success, is increasing. Such effects could arise from compromised germline maintenance in old parents, potentially reflected in reduced telomere length in their offspring. We test the relationship between parental age and offspring early-life telomere length in a natural population of common terns and find a significant negative correlation between paternal age and offspring telomere length. Offspring telomere length is reduced by 35 base pairs for each additional year of paternal age. We find no correlation with maternal age. These results fit with the idea of compromised germline maintenance in males, whose germline stem cells require continued division. RSBL-2018-0213 data for Dryad Data used for models presented in "Reduced telomere length in offspring of old fathers in a long-lived seabird", by Sandra Bouwhuis, Simon Verhulst, Christina Bauch & Oscar Vedder