Early‐life telomere length predicts lifespan and lifetime reproductive success in a wild bird

JR Eastwood, ML Hall, N Teunissen… - Molecular …, 2019 - Wiley Online Library
Poor conditions during early development can initiate trade‐offs that favour current survival
at the expense of somatic maintenance and subsequently, future reproduction. However, the …

Hot and dry conditions predict shorter nestling telomeres in an endangered songbird: Implications for population persistence

JR Eastwood, T Connallon, K Delhey… - Proceedings of the …, 2022 - National Acad Sciences
Climate warming is increasingly exposing wildlife to sublethal high temperatures, which may
lead to chronic impacts and reduced fitness. Telomere length (TL) may link heat exposure to …

The causes and consequences of inbreeding avoidance and tolerance in cooperatively breeding vertebrates

HJ Nichols - Journal of Zoology, 2017 - Wiley Online Library
Cooperative breeders provide a particularly interesting scenario for studying inbreeding.
Such populations are viscous due to delayed dispersal and short dispersal distances …

Rapid plastic breeding response to rain matches peak prey abundance in a tropical savanna bird

N Hidalgo Aranzamendi, ML Hall… - Journal of Animal …, 2019 - Wiley Online Library
Abstract Changes in climate are shifting the timing of life cycle events in the natural world.
Compared to northern temperate areas, these effects are relatively poorly understood in …

The evolution of delayed dispersal and different routes to breeding in social birds

SA Kingma, K Bebbington, N Teunissen… - Advances in the Study of …, 2021 - Elsevier
Many animals live in stable groups, where sexually mature individuals delay dispersal and
stay as nonbreeding subordinates, seemingly counter to their own evolutionary interests …

Increasing the accuracy and precision of relative telomere length estimates by RT qPCR

JR Eastwood, E Mulder, S Verhulst… - Molecular Ecology …, 2018 - Wiley Online Library
As attrition of telomeres, DNA caps that protect chromosome integrity, is accelerated by
various forms of stress, telomere length (TL) has been proposed as an indicator of lifetime …

[HTML][HTML] Context-dependent social benefits drive cooperative predator defense in a bird

N Teunissen, SA Kingma, M Fan, MJ Roast, A Peters - Current Biology, 2021 - cell.com
Understanding the major evolutionary transition from solitary individuals to complex
societies is hampered by incomplete insight into the drivers of living in cooperative groups. 1 …

Telomere dynamics in the first year of life, but not later in life, predict lifespan in a wild bird

EL Sheldon, JR Eastwood, N Teunissen… - Molecular …, 2022 - Wiley Online Library
Telomeres are protective, nucleoprotein structures at the end of chromosomes that have
been associated with lifespan across taxa. However, the extent to which these associations …

Dominance loss and tenure maintenance in Kalahari meerkats

C Duncan, J Thorley, MB Manser… - Behavioral …, 2023 - academic.oup.com
In many social species, both the acquisition of dominance and the duration that individuals
maintain their status are important determinants of breeding tenure and lifetime reproductive …

Fitness outcomes in relation to individual variation in constitutive innate immune function

MJ Roast, NH Aranzamendi, M Fan… - … of the Royal …, 2020 - royalsocietypublishing.org
Although crucial for host survival when facing persistent parasite pressure, costly immune
functions will inevitably compete for resources with other energetically expensive traits such …