Telomere lengths correlate with fitness but assortative mating by telomeres confers no benefit to fledgling recruitment

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.

No sex differences in adult telomere length across vertebrates: a meta-analysis

In many mammalian species, females live on average longer than males. In humans, women have consistently longer telomeres than men, and this has led to speculation that sex differences in telomere length (TL) could play a role in sex differences in longevity. To address the generality and drivers of patterns of sex differences in TL across vertebrates, we performed meta-analyses across 51 species. We tested two main evolutionary hypotheses proposed to explain sex differences in TL, namely the heterogametic sex disadvantage and the sexual selection hypotheses. We found no support for consistent sex differences in TL between males and females among mammal, bird, fish and reptile species. This absence of sex differences in TL across different classes of vertebrates does not support the heterogametic sex disadvantage hypothesis. Likewise, the absence of any negative effect of sexual size dimorphism on male TL suggests that sexual selection is not likely to mediate the magnitude of sex differences in TL across vertebrates. Finally, the comparative analyses we conducted did not detect any association between sex differences in TL and sex differences in longevity, which does not support the idea that sex differences in TL could explain the observed sex differences in longevity.