• Artificial size selection experiment reveals telomere length dynamics and fitness consequences in a wild passerine 

      Pepke, Michael Le; Kvalnes, Thomas; Rønning, Bernt; Jensen, Henrik; Boner, Winnie; Sæther, Bernt-Erik; Monaghan, Pat; Ringsby, Thor Harald (Peer reviewed; Journal article, 2022)
      Telomere dynamics could underlie life-history trade-offs among growth, size and longevity, but our ability to quantify such processes in natural, unmanipulated populations is limited. We investigated how 4 years of artificial ...
    • Genetic architecture and heritability of early-life telomere length in a wild passerine 

      Pepke, Michael Le; Kvalnes, Thomas; Lundregan, Sarah; Boner, Winnie; Monaghan, Pat; Sæther, Bernt-Erik; Jensen, Henrik; Ringsby, Thor Harald (Peer reviewed; Journal article, 2021)
      Early-life telomere length (TL) is associated with fitness in a range of organisms. Little is known about the genetic basis of variation in TL in wild animal populations, but to understand the evolutionary and ecological ...
    • Inbreeding is associated with shorter early-life telomere length in a wild passerine 

      Pepke, Michael Le; Niskanen, Alina Katariina; Kvalnes, Thomas; Boner, Winnie; Sæther, Bernt-Erik; Ringsby, Thor Harald; Jensen, Henrik (Peer reviewed; Journal article, 2022)
      Inbreeding can have negative effects on survival and reproduction, which may be of conservation concern in small and isolated populations. However, the physiological mechanisms underlying inbreeding depression are not ...
    • Longitudinal telomere dynamics within natural lifespans of a wild bird 

      Pepke, Michael Le; Kvalnes, Thomas; Wright, Jonathan; Araya Ajoy, Yimen Gerardo; Ranke, Peter Sjolte; Boner, Winnie; Monaghan, Pat; Sæther, Bernt-Erik; Jensen, Henrik; Ringsby, Thor Harald (Peer reviewed; Journal article, 2023)
      Telomeres, the nucleotide sequences that protect the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes, shorten with each cell division and telomere loss may be influenced by environmental factors. Telomere length (TL) decreases with age in ...
    • On being the right size: Increased body size is associated with reduced telomere length under natural conditions 

      Ringsby, Thor Harald; Jensen, Henrik; Pärn, Henrik; Kvalnes, Thomas; Boner, Winnie; Gillespie, Robert; Holand, Håkon; Hagen, Ingerid Julie; Rønning, Bernt; Sæther, Bernt-Erik; Monaghan, Pat (Journal article, 2015)
      Evolution of body size is likely to involve trade-offs between body size, growth rate and longevity. Within species, larger body size is associated with faster growth and ageing, and reduced longevity, but the cellular ...