Telomere lengths correlate with fitness but assortative mating by telomeres confers no benefit to fledgling recruitment
| Autor: | Hugh Drummond, Alexander S. Kitaysky, Rebecca C. Young |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Male
0106 biological sciences 0301 basic medicine Adaptive value Offspring Science Ecophysiology Longevity Breeding Booby 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Article Birds 03 medical and health sciences Animals Multidisciplinary biology Reproductive success Reproduction Assortative mating Telomere Homeostasis biology.organism_classification Telomere 030104 developmental biology Evolutionary biology Breeding pair Medicine Female Sula nebouxii Molecular ecology |
| Zdroj: | Scientific Reports Scientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2021) |
| ISSN: | 2045-2322 |
| Popis: | Assortative mating by telomere lengths has been observed in several bird species, and in some cases may increase fitness of individuals. Here we examined the relationship between telomere lengths of Blue-footed Booby (Sula nebouxii) mates, long-lived colonial seabirds with high annual divorce rates. We tested the hypothesis that interactions between maternal and paternal telomere lengths affect offspring and parental survival. We found that relative telomere lengths (RTL) were strongly positively correlated between members of a breeding pair. In addition, RTL of both parents interacted to predict fledgling recruitment, although fledglings with two very long-RTL parents performed only averagely. Telomere lengths also predicted adult survival: birds with long telomeres were more likely to survive, but birds whose mate had long telomeres were less likely to survive. Thus, having long telomeres benefits survival, while choosing a mate with long telomeres benefits reproductive output while penalizing survival. These patterns demonstrate that while a breeder's RTL predicts offspring quality, assortative mating by RTL does not enhance fitness, and a trade-off between different components of fitness may govern patterns of assortative mating by telomere length. They also illustrate how testing the adaptive value of only one parent’s telomere length on either survival or reproductive success alone may provide equivocal results. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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