1. Telomeres play a fundamental role in the protection of chromosomal DNA and in the regulation of cellular senescence. Recent work in human epidemiology and evolutionary ecology suggests adult telomere length (TL) may reflect past physiological stress and predict subsequent morbidity and mortality, independent of chronological age.
2. Several different methods have been developed to measure TL, each offering its own technical challenges. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the advantages and drawbacks of each method for researchers, with a particular focus on issues that are likely to face ecologists and evolutionary biologists collecting samples in the field or in organisms that may never have been studied in this context before.
3. We discuss the key issues to consider and wherever possible try to provide current consensus view regarding best practice with regard to sample collection and storage, DNA extraction and storage, and the five main methods currently available to measure TL.
4. Decisions regarding which tissues to sample, how to store them, how to extract DNA, and which TL measurement method to use cannot be prescribed, and are dependent on the biological question addressed and the constraints imposed by the study system. What is essential for future studies of telomere dynamics in evolution and ecology is that researchers publish full details of their methods and the quality control thresholds they employ.

中文翻译：

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在进化生物学和生态学中测量端粒长度和端粒动力学。

1. 端粒在保护染色体 DNA 和调节细胞衰老方面发挥着重要作用。最近在人类流行病学和进化生态学方面的工作表明，成人端粒长度 (TL) 可能反映过去的生理压力并预测随后的发病率和死亡率，与实际年龄无关。
2. 已经开发了几种不同的方法来测量 TL，每种方法都有自己的技术挑战。这篇综述的目的是为研究人员概述每种方法的优缺点，特别关注生态学家和进化生物学家在野外采集样本或可能从未研究过的生物体中可能面临的问题在这种情况下之前。
3. 我们讨论了要考虑的关键问题，并尽可能尝试就样本收集和储存、DNA 提取和储存方面的最佳实践以及目前可用于测量 TL 的五种主要方法提供当前的共识观点。
4. 关于对哪些组织进行取样、如何储存、如何提取 DNA 以及使用哪种 TL 测量方法的决定无法规定，并且取决于所解决的生物学问题和研究系统施加的限制。对于未来在进化和生态学中研究端粒动力学至关重要的是，研究人员公布他们的方法和他们采用的质量控制阈值的全部细节。