Registered Reports: A new chapter at Ecology & Evolution.

Ecology & Evolution has published its first Registered Report and offers the perspective of the editor, author, and student on the publication process.

Reproducibility in ecology and evolution: Minimum standards for data and code.

We call for journals to commit to requiring open data be archived in a format that will be simple and clear for readers to understand and use. If applied consistently, these requirements will allow contributors to be acknowledged for their work through citation of open data, and facilitate scientific progress.

Extent and variability of interstitial telomeric sequences and their effects on estimates of telomere length.

Telomeres often shorten with time, although this varies between tissues, individuals and species, and their length and/or rate of change may reflect fitness and rate of senescence. Measurement of telomeres is increasingly important to ecologists, yet the relative merits of different methods for estimating telomere length are not clear. In particular the extent to which interstitial telomere sequences (ITSs), telomere repeats located away from chromosomes ends, confound estimates of telomere length is unknown. Here we present a method to estimate the extent of ITS within a species and variation among individuals. We estimated the extent of ITS by comparing the amount of label hybridized to in-gel telomere restriction fragments (TRF) before and after the TRFs were denatured. This protocol produced robust and repeatable estimates of the extent of ITS in birds. In five species, the amount of ITS was substantial, ranging from 15% to 40% of total telomeric sequence DNA. In addition, the amount of ITS can vary significantly among individuals within a species. Including ITSs in telomere length calculations always underestimated telomere length because most ITSs are shorter than most telomeres. The magnitude of that error varies with telomere length and is larger for longer telomeres. Estimating telomere length using methods that incorporate ITSs, such as Southern blot TRF and quantitative PCR analyses reduces an investigator's power to detect difference in telomere dynamics between individuals or over time within an individual.

Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) extends the lifespan of canine chondrocytes in vitro without inducing neoplastic transformation.

To determine if the exogenous expression of the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) protein can extend the in vitro lifespan of chondrocytes from normal and osteoarthritic canine donors, articular chondrocytes were harvested and expanded initially in monolayer culture. Cells were transfected with pCIneo or pCIneo-hTERT and selected using G418. Transfectants were cultured either in monolayer or alginate beads and telomerase activity, replicative lifespan and the tumourogenic potential of the transfected cells were assessed. hTERT expression in canine chondrocytes prolonged the replicative lifespan of these cells but did not permit growth in low serum conditions or promote the formation of foci in anchorage independence assays. In addition, hTERT expression resulted in the down-regulation of MMP-1. This suggests that hTERT may represent a tool for the generation of tissue engineered chondrocytes suitable for autologous re-implantation into the affected areas of osteoarthritic joints.