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Section: Evolutionary Biology
Topic: Evolution, Genetics/Genomics, Population biology

Telomere length varies with sex, hatching rank and year of birth in the Little Owl, Athene noctua

Criscuolo, François1 ; Fache, Inès1; Scaar, Bertrand2; Zahn, Sandrine1 ; Bleu, Josefa1  
1 Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, IPHC UMR 7178, 67000 Strasbourg, France
2 Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO) Alsace, 1 rue du Wisch, 67560 Rosenwiller, France

10.24072/pcjournal.341 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 3 (2023), article no. e107.

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Telomeres are non-coding DNA sequences located at the end of linear chromosomes, protecting genome integrity. In numerous taxa, telomeres shorten with age and telomere length (TL) is positively correlated with longevity. Moreover, TL is also affected by environmental stressors and/or resource-demanding situations particularly during early-life. Thus, TL has been used as a physiological marker of individual quality and also as an indicator of population trend in conservation physiology. In this study, we investigated the effects of hatching rank, year of birth (2014 to 2017), sex and nest environment on TL of 137 Little Owls nestlings (Athene noctua). Little Owls’ populations in Europe showed a marked declined in the end of the 20th century. Nowadays, in the studied Alsatian population, the population is increasing. In this study, our results indicated that telomeres are longer in females and, independently of sex, in nestlings with the highest body condition. There was also a negative effect of hatching rank but only for last-hatched nestlings in large clutches of 5 nestlings. We did not find any effect of the environmental covariates on nestlings’ TL. Finally, we found that nestlings’ TL were shorter the last year of the study, while nestlings’ body condition stayed unchanged over the same period. This result is intriguing given the local positive population dynamics and is further discussed in the context of physiological conservation. Future studies should investigate the link between reduced TL and survival prospects in this species.

Published online:
DOI: 10.24072/pcjournal.341
Type: Research article
Keywords: telomere, little owl, hatching rank, early-life effects, sex differences
Criscuolo, François 1; Fache, Inès 1; Scaar, Bertrand 2; Zahn, Sandrine 1; Bleu, Josefa 1

1 Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, IPHC UMR 7178, 67000 Strasbourg, France
2 Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO) Alsace, 1 rue du Wisch, 67560 Rosenwiller, France
License: CC-BY 4.0
Copyrights: The authors retain unrestricted copyrights and publishing rights 
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Criscuolo, François; Fache, Inès; Scaar, Bertrand; Zahn, Sandrine; Bleu, Josefa. Telomere length varies with sex, hatching rank and year of birth in the Little Owl, Athene noctua. Peer Community Journal, Volume 3 (2023), article  no. e107. doi : 10.24072/pcjournal.341. https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.341/

Peer reviewed and recommended by PCI : 10.24072/pci.evolbiol.100653

Conflict of interest of the recommender and peer reviewers:
The recommender in charge of the evaluation of the article and the reviewers declared that they have no conflict of interest (as defined in the code of conduct of PCI) with the authors or with the content of the article.

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