Meeting Abstract
The natal environment can influence an organism’s survival and reproductive success. Telomere length is a trait that is demonstrated to co-vary with measures of organismal performance, and telomere dynamics early in life may have particularly long-lasting consequences. Therefore, it is important to understand the environmental sources of variation that affect telomere length. We studied how incubation behavior influenced relative telomere length in nestling barn swallows (Hirundo rustica erythrogaster) using an egg-cross foster experiment. Half the eggs in the nest were switched between synchronously laid eggs from a different nest just prior to the beginning of incubation. This design allows us to decouple genetic and environmental effects on telomere length. Female incubation behavior was quantified by placing thermocouple eggs in the nests to record their temperature profiles. We measured relative telomere length of nine-day old nestlings using qPCR and assigned parentage of nestlings using microsatellite markers. We predicted that eggs receiving consistent, high-quality incubation would result in nestlings with relatively longer telomeres compared to eggs with a less consistent, lower-quality incubation.
