Figure 1.

The evidence presented by Steenstrup et al. (2013a) to support their claim that observed telomere lengthening is predominantly, if not entirely, an artefact of measurement error exacerbated by short follow‐up periods. (A) The predicted negative relationship between follow‐up period and percentage of TL gainers (n = 13 studies). The solid line shows the best‐fitting linear regression. (B) Agreement between theoretical predictions based on assuming constant telomere attrition and measurement error, and empirically observed percentage of TL gainers (n = 10 studies). The dotted line has a slope of 1 and shows the expectation if predictions were perfect. The solid line shows the best‐fitting line obtained from regression through the origin; the r‐squared value and slope of this line are given on the graph.