Telomere length data from a wild population of Seychelles Warblers on Cousin Island, 1995-2014

These data consist of relative telomere length (RTL) measures from quantitative polymerase chain reaction, of Seychelles warbler birds on Cousin Island, Seychelles. The data were collected by the Seychelles Warbler Project in 1995-2014. Data include bird identity, sex, age, birth period, qPCR plate identity, RTL, technician, territory, field period, mum ID, dad ID, mum age at conception, dad age at conception, dominant female ID in the natal territory, dominant male ID in the natal territory,Blood samples (~25 μl) were collected and stored at room temperature in absolute ethanol. DNA was extracted using a DNeasy blood and tissue kit (Qiagen) according to the manufacturer’s instructions with modification of overnight lysis at 37 °C and a final DNA elution volume of 80 μl. DNA concentration and purity were quantified using a NanoDrop 8000 Spectrophotometer (ThermoScientific). The following thresholds were applied before samples were included for further analysis: (1) DNA concentration must be at least 15 ng/μl (based on a mean of three measurements), (2) the 260/280 absorbance ratio has to be between 1.8 and 2.0 for acceptable DNA purity, and (3) the 260/230 absorbance ratio must be higher than 1.8. DNA integrity was further validated by visualisation with ethidium bromide after electrophoresis on a 1.2% agarose gel, and all samples with evidence of DNA degradation were re-extracted or excluded. All DNA extractions that passed the above criteria were diluted to 3.3 ng/μl before telomere measurement. We used quantitative polymerase chain reaction to calculate a relative measure of telomere length that describes the amount of telomeric DNA in a sample relative to that of GAPDH, a constantly expressed reference gene.,