shortened telomeres during vegetative growth progressively shortening telomeres during vegetative growth A physical cellular phenotype observed in the vegetative growth phase of the life cycle in which cells form telomeres that are shorter than normal, and that continue to decrease in length over successive generations. progressively decreasing telomere length during vegetative growth midori 2014-02-19T11:05:13Z FYPO:0003107 progressively shortening telomeres during mitotic cell cycle