Baseline and stress-induced corticosterone levels are heritable and genetically correlated in a barn owl population

Béziers, Paul; San‐Jose, Luis M.; Almasi, Bettina; Jenni, Lukas; Roulin, Alexandre

doi:10.1038/s41437-019-0203-5

Cited by 33 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 106 publications

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“… 14 , 47 , 48 , 50 – 52 ], evidence for among population divergence within species is rather sparse (but see studies on stress selected lines in rainbow trout [ 53 , 54 ], and birds (e.g. dark-eyed junco, [ 55 ]) and wild barn owls [ 56 ]). Our results highlight the need to study intraspecific genetic divergence in CORT levels.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Context dependent variation in corticosterone and phenotypic divergence of Rana arvalis populations along an acidification gradient

2022

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Background Physiological processes, as immediate responses to the environment, are important mechanisms of phenotypic plasticity and can influence evolution at ecological time scales. In stressful environments, physiological stress responses of individuals are initiated and integrated via the release of hormones, such as corticosterone (CORT). In vertebrates, CORT influences energy metabolism and resource allocation to multiple fitness traits (e.g. growth and morphology) and can be an important mediator of rapid adaptation to environmental stress, such as acidification. The moor frog, Rana arvalis, shows adaptive divergence in larval life-histories and predator defense traits along an acidification gradient in Sweden. Here we take a first step to understanding the role of CORT in this adaptive divergence. We conducted a fully factorial laboratory experiment and reared tadpoles from three populations (one acidic, one neutral and one intermediate pH origin) in two pH treatments (Acid versus Neutral pH) from hatching to metamorphosis. We tested how the populations differ in tadpole CORT profiles and how CORT is associated with tadpole life-history and morphological traits. Results We found clear differences among the populations in CORT profiles across different developmental stages, but only weak effects of pH treatment on CORT. Tadpoles from the acid origin population had, on average, lower CORT levels than tadpoles from the neutral origin population, and the intermediate pH origin population had intermediate CORT levels. Overall, tadpoles with higher CORT levels developed faster and had shorter and shallower tails, as well as shallower tail muscles. Conclusions Our common garden results indicate among population divergence in CORT levels, likely reflecting acidification mediated divergent selection on tadpole physiology, concomitant to selection on larval life-histories and morphology. However, CORT levels were highly environmental context dependent. Jointly these results indicate a potential role for CORT as a mediator of multi-trait divergence along environmental stress gradients in natural populations. At the same time, the population level differences and high context dependency in CORT levels suggest that snapshot assessment of CORT in nature may not be reliable bioindicators of stress.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Context dependent variation in corticosterone and phenotypic divergence of Rana arvalis populations along an acidification gradient

2022

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“…While confirmed by field studies on two swallow species [39,40], this is not a universal finding, with a strong genetic correlation (r = 0.68-0.80) between baseline and stress-induced GCs reported for barn owl (Tyto alba) nestlings [38].…”

Section: Box 2 Are Stress-response Mechanisms Evolvable?mentioning

confidence: 86%

“…In natural populations, GC levels are often heritable and under selection, although due to pleiotropic effects, the evolution of hormonal traits depends on how they alter phenotypic trait combinations [11]. Breeding experiments in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) [37] and pedigree analyses of free-living bird populations [38][39][40] show higher heritability for stress-induced GCs than baseline GCs. To our knowledge, the heritability of GC decay rates has not been estimated.…”

Section: Box 2 Are Stress-response Mechanisms Evolvable?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards an Evolutionary Theory of Stress Responses

Taborsky

English

Fawcett

et al. 2021

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

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“…Furthermore, even internal factors could play a role. For example, it has been shown that CORT baseline concentrations in Barn Owls (Tyto alba) are genetically correlated [59]. Therefore, population-dependent CORTf baseline concentrations are conceivable as well.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feather Corticosterone Measurements of Greater Flamingos Living under Different Forms of Flight Restraint

Reese

Baumgärtner

Fersen

et al. 2020

Animals

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Deflighting zoo birds is a practice that receives increasing criticism due to its presumed incompatibility with animal welfare. To our knowledge, this is the first approach to address this problem in a scientific way. To do this, we compared feather corticosterone (CORTf) from Greater Flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus, n = 151) of different flight status (i.e., pinioned, feather clipped, airworthy) from twelve different zoological institutions. To complement the hormone measurements, behavioral observations (scan samplings) were conducted prior to feather sampling within the presumed time frame of feather growth. We hypothesized that CORTf of the deflighted flamingos would differ from CORTf of their airworthy conspecifics. No significant difference in CORTf was found between the three groups, and our hypothesis was rejected. However, the impact of the institution itself (i.e., the housing conditions) proved to be the most dominant variable (variance between the institutions = 53.82%). Due to high variability, the behavioral observations were evaluated descriptively but did not give rise to doubt the findings in CORTf. Therefore, we assume that the method of flight restraint of Greater Flamingos does not have a measurable effect on CORTf. We consider this model for evaluating animal welfare of zoo birds a useful tool and provide ideas for further adjustments for consecutive studies.

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Baseline and stress-induced corticosterone levels are heritable and genetically correlated in a barn owl population

Cited by 33 publications

References 106 publications

Context dependent variation in corticosterone and phenotypic divergence of Rana arvalis populations along an acidification gradient

Context dependent variation in corticosterone and phenotypic divergence of Rana arvalis populations along an acidification gradient

Towards an Evolutionary Theory of Stress Responses

Feather Corticosterone Measurements of Greater Flamingos Living under Different Forms of Flight Restraint

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