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Determinants of chromosome-specific telomere lengths among 2573 All of Us participants
Jain, Niyati Luo, Jiajun Yang, Yuqing Demanelis, Kathryn Ahsan, Habibul Aschebrook-Kilfoy, Briseis Chen, Lin S Pierce, Brandon L
Jain, Niyati
Luo, Jiajun
Yang, Yuqing
Demanelis, Kathryn
Ahsan, Habibul
Aschebrook-Kilfoy, Briseis
Chen, Lin S
Pierce, Brandon L
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Epidemiology
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Journal article
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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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English
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Abstract
Telomere length is a biomarker of aging and disease risk. Most human studies have assessed average telomere length, limiting our understanding of variability across chromosome arms. Using long-read sequencing data from >2500 All of Us participants, we estimate chromosome-specific telomere lengths and characterize sources of biological and technical variation. Telomere length varies by chromosome arm, accounting for 9.1% of total variance. Substantial variance (8.9%) in chromosome-specific telomere lengths is attributable to individual, independent of age, suggesting that inter-individual differences in length are established at birth and maintained through life. Age is inversely associated with length for all arms, but longer arms show stronger association. We demonstrate that chromosome-specific telomere estimates enable analysis of disease associations for individual telomeres and for individuals’ shortest telomere. Overall, this work highlights the utility of long-read sequencing for population-scale analysis of chromosome-specific telomere lengths and provides a framework to guide future studies.
Citation
N. Jain, J. Luo, Y. Yang, K. Demanelis, H. Ahsan, B. Aschebrook-Kilfoy , et al., "Determinants of chromosome-specific telomere lengths among 2573 All of Us participants," Nature Communications, 2026, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71172-x.
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Nature Communications
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31 Biological Sciences, 3105 Genetics, 3 Good Health and Well Being
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Springer Nature