The use of telomere length in ecology and evolutionary biology

Abstract

The measurement of telomere length (TL) is a genetic tool that is beginning to be employed widely in ecological and evolutionary studies as marker of age and fitness. The adoption of this approach has been accelerated by the development of telomere quantitative PCR, which enables the screening of large numbers of samples with little effort. However, the measurement and interpretation of TL change need to be done with a necessary level of rigour that has thus far often been missing where this approach has been employed in an ecological and evolutionary context. In this article, we critically review the literature available on the relationship between TL, age and fitness. We seek to familiarize geneticists, ecologists and evolutionary biologists with the shortcomings of the methods and the most common mistakes made while analysing TL. Prevention of these mistakes will ensure accuracy, reproducibility and comparability of TL studies in different species and allow the identification of ecological and evolutionary principles behind TL dynamics.