Effect of domestication on telomere length
We assigned a binary variable (0/1) indicating the nine species in Gomes
et al. (2011) that have a long history of human domestication and
captive-breeding (Scherf, 2000; Wilkins et al., 2014), see Table S9: cow
(Bos taurus ), sheep (Ovis aries ), pig (Sus scrofa ),
dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius ), horse (Equus
caballus ), dog (Canis lupus familiaris ), European white rabbit
(Oryctolagus cuniculus ), laboratory mouse (Mus musculus ),
and laboratory rat (Rattus norvegicus ). We first tested whether
TL (response variable) is different in domesticated species using a
phylogenetic bivariate regression. Since TL is also hypothesized to be
influenced by telomerase activity, body mass and lifespan we also tested
the effect of domestication on TL (response variable) while accounting
for telomerase activity, body mass and lifespan (predictor variables)
using two phylogenetic multiple regressions, as described above. All
analyses were performed in R (R Core Team, 2020).