Meeting Abstract
Telomere length has been implicated as an important predictor of fitness and organismal performance. Previous research has demonstrated that telomere length is heritable, but sources of environmental variation and their effects on telomere length remain largely unexplored. In this study, we examined the effects of nest parasites on the relative telomere length of North American barn swallow nestlings (Hirundo rustica erythrogaster). We utilized an egg cross-foster design in order to separate the genetic and environmental factors influencing nestling telomere length. This was done by switching eggs between synchronously laid nests after the penultimate egg was laid but prior to the initiation of incubation. We then added 100 nest mites to half of the experimental nests and removed mites from the other half via sterilization with a heat gun. A blood sample was taken from the nestlings nine days after hatching for molecular sexing, quantification of relative telomere length, and for parentage analysis using microsatellite markers. We used qPCR to quantify relative telomere length. We predicted that nestlings in parasitized nests would have relatively shorter telomeres compared to nestlings raised in sterile (mite-free) nests.
