Comparative biology of mammalian telomeres: hypotheses on ancestral states and the roles of telomeres in longevity determination: The comparative biology of mammalian telomeres

Abstract

...We examined telomeres/telomerase in cultured cells from >?60 mammalian species to place different uses of telomeres in a broad mammalian context. Phylogeny?based statistical analysis reconstructed ancestral states. Our analysis suggested that the ancestral mammalian phenotype included short telomeres (