Dryad DOI: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.h70rxwdsj

Data description for ‘The effects of costly telomere maintenance on lifespan - reproductive tradeoffs in sand lizards’

Note: Empty boxes in Excel always denote missing values – a result of incomplete sampling of lizards in the wild throughout the decade-long sampling period (you can think of catchability through lizard life as a ‘sliding window’ with only some lizards being followed completely from birth to death.

File: FeCostOfReproRev 

Variables:

Adult number (‘adno’) = is the sequential identification number of each adult lizard

DNAquality (A260/280) (‘aDNAqual’) = is the ratio of absorbance at 260 and 280 nm is used to assess DNA purity.

Regenerated tail (mm) (‘reg’) = our lizards drop their tail when attacked by a predator, whereafter the tail regrows, and we measure the regrown part in mm

Body mass (‘mass’)= the lizard is weighed in (g)

Clutch mass (‘cmass’) = is the weight in (g) of a female’s total egg clutch weighed after it’s laid

log(TSRatio as adult) (‘tTSAd’) = is the log-transformed factual telomere length estimate using qPCR (i.e., the telomere-single copy gene ratio - here we used GAPDH as a single copy gene)

File: Telomerasedata

Variables:

date (‘date’) = observation data when the data was collected

sex (‘sex’) = the lizards sex, M = male, F = females

RNAconcentration (‘RNAconc’) = RNA concentration in the blood scored in (ng/µl)

TERTexpression(Cq) (‘tTERTCqIPCgDNACorr’) = gene expression of the TERT gene that produces telomerase and adds base pairs to the telomere at the end of the chromosome

regenerated tail in mm (‘reg’)

File: TeloTerminalRev

Variables:

adult number (‘adno’) = an adult lizard’s identification number

sex (‘sex’) = a lizard’s sex, M = male, F = female

year of measurement (‘myear’) = the year an observation was made

DNAquality (A260/280) (‘aDNAqual’) = is the ratio of absorbance at 260 and 280 nm is used to assess DNA purity

Regenerated tail in mm (‘reg’) = the regrown part of the tail subsequent to tail dropping after a predator attack

Mort (‘mort’) = classification variable that defines whether a lizard died (dead) or lived on (alive) til the next year

Lifetime reproductive success (counts) (‘lrs’) = the number of offspring produced during an individual lizard’s lifespan. The number is acquired by assigning maternity and paternity of offspring using 21 microsatellites (molecular markers)

Lifespan (‘mlspan’) = a lizard’s lifespan in years

TSRatio (‘tTSAge’) = the telomere length estimated using T/S ratio (i.e., telomere length divided by the single copy gene GAPDH)

Change in TS ratio controlling from hatchling to adult (i.e., telomere length at hatching minus the telomere length as adult) (‘DRegToMeanCorr’)

Classification of regenerated vs. intact tail (‘‘reg1’)

Further explanations to the above file: intact vs. regenerated tail is a classification variable used to contrast lizards that have lost their tail from predator attacks and are currently regrowing a tail, versus those that have never lost their tail due to predation. Lifetime reproductive success is the cumulated number of offspring molecularly assigned using 21 microsatellites.