Life-history dependent relationships between plasma alkaline phosphatase activity and body condition in male Eurasian Tree Sparrows

Abstract

Background:In temperate-breeding birds, individuals must adjust their physiological states from one life-history stage to another in response to changing conditions to maximize ecological fitness. Previous evidences have shown that body mass, size-corrected mass (SCM), and hematocrit (Hct) could be used as estimates of the energetic state of individuals to illustrate life-history trade-offs and individual quality in field physiology. Plasma alkaline phosphatase (ALP) plays critical roles in regulating the metabolism of energy but very limited information is known on its link with body mass or Hct. Methods:We determined the changes of plasma ALP levels in both early breeding and wintering stages of male Eurasian Tree Sparrows (Passer montanus), and examined the relationships between ALP and body mass, SCM, and Hct of the birds. Results:Our study showed that (1) in male Eurasian Tree Sparrows, body mass did not vary with life-history stage but plasma ALP activity significantly increased in the wintering stage compared to the breeding stage; (2) ALP activity was not correlated with individual body mass but was positively correlated with individual SCM and Hct. Such positive correlations, however, only occurred in the wintering but not in the breeding stages. Conclusions:Our results suggest that plasma ALP activities in free-living birds can be used as one of the indicators of body condition or nutritional status for analyzing individual variation in the wintering but not in the breeding stages. The life-history dependent relationships between plasma ALP activity and body condition may contribute to our better understanding of the trade-off between individual survival and reproduction in free-living animals.

Dietary lysine modulates growth performance, haemato‐biochemical indices, non‐specific immune response, intestinal enzymatic activities and antioxidant properties of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss fingerlings

“…It also plays a significant role in disease resistance by conceding the pathogen initially followed by the phagocytosis process (Khan & Khan, 2021;Zhao et al, 2017). In the present work, highest plasma ALP was observed at low Lyscontaining diets, which might be correlated with the damage of liver parenchyma or interruption in reliability of membrane-bound hepatocytes (Yaghoubi et al, 2018).…”

Effects of capture and captivity on plasma corticosterone and metabolite levels in breeding Eurasian Tree Sparrows

“…In recent years, the reproductive biology and endocrinology of the Eurasian Tree Sparrow has been relatively well studied, e.g. their adrenocortical responses to capture stress during the breeding season in relation to body condition, testosterone (T), corticosteroid-binding globulin (CBG; Li et al 2008Li et al , 2011Li et al , 2012Li et al , 2016Zhao et al 2017a, b). We hypothesized that (1) Glu would increase, and TG decrease in breeding Eurasian Tree Sparrows, concomitantly with increased CORT levels in response to both capture and captivity stress; (2) plasma UA would decrease and UA increase after capture and 24-h captivity stress; (3) male and female sparrows would differ in both baseline and stress-induced (capture and captivity) metabolite levels.…”