title: Ageing and the cost of maintaining coloration in the Australian painted dragon.
abstract: There is now good evidence in several taxa that animal coloration positively reflects an individual's antioxidant capacity. However, even though telomeres, a marker of ageing, are known to be vulnerable to reactive oxygen species (ROS) attacks, no studies have ever assessed whether colour fading reflects the rate of biological ageing in any taxa. Here, we measured colour fading, telomere erosion (a measure of biological ageing) and ROS levels in painted dragons. We show that individuals that were better at maintaining their coloration during the three months of the study suffered a higher cost in terms of telomere erosion, but overall ROS levels measured at the start of the study were not significantly related to colour maintenance and telomere shortening. We therefore suggest that colour maintenance is a costly phenomenon in terms of telomere erosion, and that overall ROS levels do not seem to be a crucial component linking ornamental coloration and telomere erosion in our study system.
authors.affiliation: School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA Centre for Ecology and Conservation, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK giraudeau.mathieu@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8563-1810
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Giraudeau
authors.affiliation: School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Christopher R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Friesen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sudyka
authors.affiliation: School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Nicky
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rollings
authors.affiliation: School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Camilla M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Whittington
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Mark R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Mats
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Olsson
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D003116:Color; D008116:Lizards / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010858:Pigmentation / Q000502:physiology*; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species / Q000097:blood*; D059506:Telomere Shortening
chemical_list: D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species
keywords: colour fading; reactive oxygen species; telomere erosion