Diet predicts milk composition in primates

Abstract

Mammalian mothers pay heavy energetic costs to fuel the growth of their offspring. These costs are highest during lactation. Energy transmitted to offspring in the form of milk must ultimately come from the maternal diet, but there have been few comparative studies of the relationship between milk properties and mammalian diets. We used interspecific data on primate milk composition and wild diets to establish that concentrations of milk protein and sugar are predicted by diet independent of maternal mass, litter mass, and infant parking behavior such that increasing folivory or faunivory increases protein concentration but decreases sugar concentration. Milk energy density is unrelated to diet, though infant parking species do produce more energy-dense milk. While parking effects have been previously explained as a result of mother-infant separation, the mechanisms causing the relationship between nutrient packaging in milk and maternal diet are currently unclear. However, they likely reflect evolved differences in maternal energetics related to maternal foraging ecology, infant growth patterns, or the relative dietary abundance of nutrients costly to synthesize in milk among primate species.

Catalysis of a Nanometre Solid Super Acid of SO42−/TiO2 on the Thermal Decomposition of Ammonium Nitrate

“…For example, pure AN cannot be ignited by flame or heated in the air, and it has a remarkable resistance to stimulation such as friction, impacts, shock waves, etc. Nevertheless, AN has not served as the main oxidizer in propellant formulation and is used only as an ingredient in gas-generating agent [1,2]. This is because AN has three major defects [3]: (1) serious hygroscopicity, (2) phase transition at storage temperature and (3) poor ignition and combustion performance.…”

Maternal behavior.

“…There is further variance in daily milk volume and milk energy density (Frigerio, Schutz, Prentice, Whitehead, & Jéquier, 1991;K. Hinde, Power, & Oftedal, 2009), some of which is a result of diet type (Blomquist, Hinde, & Milligan, 2012) or maternal size and condition (body mass index; Butte, Garza, Stuff, Smith, & Nichols, 1984;. Other variance among mothers, such as in the types of oligosaccharides present in milk, remains to be explained (German, Freeman, Lebrilla, & Mills, 2008).…”

Maternal social position and survival to weaning in arid‐country vervet monkeys

“…To this end, maternal diet is critical, as it underpins the dependent infant's viability, through both initial gestational growth and subsequent milk composition and availability (Blomquist et al, 2017; Butte et al, 1984; Lummaa & Clutton‐Brock, 2002). As the provision of milk also carries energy and time costs (Lee, 1996), maternal performance is likely to be contingent on optimizing access to relevant resources, especially where these are limited and contested.…”