Gaseous Metabolism and Water Relations of the Zebra Finch, Taeniopygia castanotis

Calder, William A.

doi:10.1086/physzool.37.4.30152758

Cited by 154 publications

(109 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…However, body temperature does not necessarily track changes in such processes, because metabolic heat production can partly or completely substitute for shivering thermogenesis at temperatures below thermal neutrality (Paladino and King, 1984;Chappell et al, 1997). If so, any reduction in heat supplied by digestion or activity in our study (which was performed some 8°C below thermal neutrality; Calder, 1964) should have been compensated for by increased shivering to maintain a stable body temperature. This remains speculative in the absence of metabolic data.…”

Section: A Trade-off Between Foraging and Immune Function?mentioning

confidence: 90%

Body temperature changes during simulated bacterial infection in a songbird: fever at night and hypothermia at day

Sköld-Chiriac

Nord

Tobler

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Although fever (a closely regulated increase in body temperature in response to infection) typically is beneficial, it is energetically costly and may induce detrimentally high body temperatures. This can increase the susceptibility to energetic bottlenecks and risks of overheating in some organisms. Accordingly, it could be particularly interesting to study fever in small birds, which have comparatively high metabolic rates and high, variable body temperatures. We therefore investigated two aspects of fever and other sickness behaviours (circadian variation, dose dependence) in a small songbird, the zebra finch. We injected lipopolysaccharide (LPS) at the beginning of either the day or the night, and subsequently monitored body temperature, body mass change and food intake for the duration of the response. We found pronounced circadian variation in the body temperature response to LPS injection, manifested by (dose-dependent) hypothermia during the day but fever at night. This resulted in body temperature during the peak response being relatively similar during the day and night. Day-tonight differences might be explained in the context of circadian variation in body temperature: songbirds have a high daytime body temperature that is augmented by substantial heat production peaks during activity. This might require a trade-off between the benefit of fever and the risk of overheating. In contrast, at night, when body temperature is typically lower and less variable, fever can be used to mitigate infection. We suggest that the change in body temperature during infection in small songbirds is context dependent and regulated to promote survival according to individual demands at the time of infection.

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Section: A Trade-off Between Foraging and Immune Function?mentioning

confidence: 90%

Body temperature changes during simulated bacterial infection in a songbird: fever at night and hypothermia at day

Sköld-Chiriac

Nord

Tobler

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…The DNP dose [~4 mg kg −1 day −1 for an average bird weighing 15.0 g and drinking 3.0 ml of water per day (Calder, 1964)] was chosen after a pilot experimentation on 15 birds (see Appendix for details), demonstrating that a lower dose (5 mg l −1 ) was insufficient to noticeably affect the metabolic rate, whereas the chosen dose (20 mg l −1 ) moderately increased the metabolic rate of birds (~20%) without apparent deleterious effect. We excluded the use of a higher dose (50 mg l −1 ) because it was associated with potentially deleterious effects (i.e.…”

Section: Animals and Experimental Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitochondrial uncoupling as a regulator of life history trajectories in birds: An experimental study in the zebra finch

Stier

Bize

Roussel

et al. 2014

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Mitochondria have a fundamental role in the transduction of energy from food into ATP. The coupling between food oxidation and ATP production is never perfect, but may nevertheless be of evolutionary significance. The 'uncoupling to survive' hypothesis suggests that 'mild' mitochondrial uncoupling evolved as a protective mechanism against the excessive production of damaging reactive oxygen species (ROS). Because resource allocation and ROS production are thought to shape animal life histories, alternative life-history trajectories might be driven by individual variation in the degree of mitochondrial uncoupling. We tested this hypothesis in a small bird species, the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), by treating adults with the artificial mitochondrial uncoupler 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP) over a 32-month period. In agreement with our expectations, the uncoupling treatment increased metabolic rate. However, we found no evidence that treated birds enjoyed lower oxidative stress levels or greater survival rates, in contrast to previous results in other taxa. In vitro experiments revealed lower sensitivity of ROS production to DNP in mitochondria isolated from skeletal muscles of zebra finch than mouse. In addition, we found significant reductions in the number of eggs laid and in the inflammatory immune response in treated birds. Altogether, our data suggest that the 'uncoupling to survive' hypothesis may not be applicable for zebra finches, presumably because of lower effects of mitochondrial uncoupling on mitochondrial ROS production in birds than in mammals. Nevertheless, mitochondrial uncoupling appeared to be a potential life-history regulator of traits such as fecundity and immunity at adulthood, even with food supplied ad libitum.

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“…H 2 O and CO 2 were removed from influent air using Drierite and Ascarite, and the air was then pumped through three metabolic chambers made from 1-l metal cylinders with airtight lids. The chambers were kept in an environmental chamber (Binder KB53 Refrigerated Incubator, Binder GmbH, Tuttlingen, Germany), which maintained the chambers at a constant temperature of 35.0 ± 0.1 1C, which is within the thermoneutral zone of the zebra finch (Calder, 1964). A constant air-flow rate into the chambers of 200 ml min À1 was maintained using mass-flow controllers (Sable Systems, Las Vegas, NV, USA).…”

Section: Bmr Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Basal metabolic rate can evolve independently of morphological and behavioural traits

et al. 2013

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Quantitative genetic analyses of basal metabolic rate (BMR) can inform us about the evolvability of the trait by providing estimates of heritability, and also of genetic correlations with other traits that may constrain the ability of BMR to respond to selection. Here, we studied a captive population of zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) in which selection lines for male courtship rate have been established. We measure BMR in these lines to see whether selection on male sexual activity would change BMR as a potentially correlated trait. We find that the genetic correlation between courtship rate and BMR is practically zero, indicating that the two traits can evolve independently of each other. Interestingly, we find that the heritability of BMR in our population (h 2 ¼ 0.45) is markedly higher than was previously reported for a captive zebra finch population from Norway. A comparison of the two studies shows that additive genetic variance in BMR has been largely depleted in the Norwegian population, especially the genetic variance in BMR that is independent of body mass. In our population, the slope of BMR increase with body mass differs not only between the sexes but also between the six selection lines, which we tentatively attribute to genetic drift and/or founder effects being strong in small populations. Our study therefore highlights two things. First, the evolvability of BMR may be less constrained by genetic correlations and lack of independent genetic variation than previously described. Second, genetic drift in small populations can rapidly lead to different evolvabilities across populations.

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Gaseous Metabolism and Water Relations of the Zebra Finch, Taeniopygia castanotis

Cited by 154 publications

References 16 publications

Body temperature changes during simulated bacterial infection in a songbird: fever at night and hypothermia at day

Body temperature changes during simulated bacterial infection in a songbird: fever at night and hypothermia at day

Mitochondrial uncoupling as a regulator of life history trajectories in birds: An experimental study in the zebra finch

Basal metabolic rate can evolve independently of morphological and behavioural traits

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