10.5061/DRYAD.JV463
Rollings, Nicky
University of Sydney
Uhrig, Emily J.
Linköping University
Krohmer, Randolf W.
University of Sydney
Waye, Heather L.
University of Minnesota
Mason, Robert T.
Oregon State University
Olsson, Mats
University of Sydney
Whittington, Camilla M.
University of Sydney
Friesen, Christopher R.
University of Sydney
Krohmer, Randolph W.
St. Francis Xavier University
Data from: Age-related sex differences in body condition and telomere
dynamics of red-sided garter snakes
Dryad
dataset
2017
Thamnophis sirtalis
Sex-differences
life history strategies
reptile
National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/021nxhr62
DBI-1308394
2017-03-07T14:13:18Z
2017-03-07T14:13:18Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2146
21422 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Life-history strategies vary dramatically between the sexes, which may
drive divergence in sex-specific senescence and mortality rates. Telomeres
are tandem nucleotide repeats that protect the ends of chromosomes from
erosion during cell division. Telomeres have been implicated in senescence
and mortality because they tend to shorten with stress, growth and age. We
investigated age-specific telomere length in female and male red-sided
garter snakes, Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis. We hypothesized that
age-specific telomere length would differ between males and females given
their divergent reproductive strategies. Male garter snakes emerge from
hibernation with high levels of corticosterone, which facilitates energy
mobilization to fuel mate-searching, courtship and mating behaviours
during a two to four week aphagous breeding period at the den site.
Conversely, females remain at the dens for only about 4 days and seem to
invest more energy in growth and cellular maintenance, as they usually
reproduce biennially. As male investment in reproduction involves a yearly
bout of physiologically stressful activities, while females prioritize
self-maintenance, we predicted male snakes would experience more
age-specific telomere loss than females. We investigated this prediction
using skeletochronology to determine the ages of individuals and qPCR to
determine telomere length in a cross-sectional study. For both sexes,
telomere length was positively related to body condition. Telomere length
decreased with age in male garter snakes, but remained stable in female
snakes. There was no correlation between telomere length and growth in
either sex, suggesting that our results are a consequence of divergent
selection on life histories of males and females. Different selection on
the sexes may be the physiological consequence of the sexual dimorphism
and mating system dynamics displayed by this species.
Garter snake telomeres and conditionGarter snake dataset TELOMERES and age.xlsx
Canada
Manitoba