Nestling erythrocyte resistance to oxidative stress predicts fledging success but not local recruitment in a wild bird

Losdat, Sylvain; Helfenstein, Fabrice; Blount, Jonathan D.; Marri, Viviana; Maronde, Lea; Richner, Heinz

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2012.0888

Cited by 35 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The transition from nestling to fledging is marked by high mortality in free-living birds. Fledglings in better condition are more likely to survive to adulthood [70]. Therefore, by investing in parental care and increasing nestling quality, males living in stressful environments could maximize the survival of their nestlings and, hence, their fitness.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developmental stress increases reproductive success in male zebra finches

et al. 2014

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There is increasing evidence that exposure to stress during development can have sustained effects on animal phenotype and performance across lifehistory stages. For example, developmental stress has been shown to decrease the quality of sexually selected traits (e.g. bird song), and therefore is thought to decrease reproductive success. However, animals exposed to developmental stress may compensate for poor quality sexually selected traits by pursuing alternative reproductive tactics. Here, we examine the effects of developmental stress on adult male reproductive investment and success in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). We tested the hypothesis that males exposed to developmental stress sire fewer offspring through extra-pair copulations (EPCs), but invest more in parental care. To test this hypothesis, we fed nestlings corticosterone (CORT; the dominant avian stress hormone) during the nestling period and measured their adult reproductive success using common garden breeding experiments. We found that nestlings reared by CORT-fed fathers received more parental care compared with nestlings reared by control fathers. Consequently, males fed CORT during development reared nestlings in better condition compared with control males. Contrary to the prediction that developmental stress decreases male reproductive success, we found that CORT-fed males also sired more offspring and were less likely to rear non-genetic offspring compared with control males, and thus had greater overall reproductive success. These data are the first to demonstrate that developmental stress can have a positive effect on fitness via changes in reproductive success and provide support for an adaptive role of developmental stress in shaping animal phenotype.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developmental stress increases reproductive success in male zebra finches

et al. 2014

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“…Thus oxidative damage caused by the increased metabolism could limit mass gain before fledging, which is correlated with fledging success (Losdat et al, 2013). Antioxidants could therefore play an important role during the nestling phase.…”

Section: Research Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

Differential effects of vitamins E and C and carotenoids on growth, resistance to oxidative stress, fledging success and plumage colouration in wild great tits

Marri

Richner

2014

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Oxidative stress is the imbalance between the production of reactive species and antioxidants, which causes damage to lipids, proteins and DNA. Antioxidants, like vitamins and carotenoids, can limit oxidative damage and can therefore regulate the trade-off between growth, which is a period of high reactive species production, and self-maintenance. However, the role of carotenoids as antioxidants in vivo has been debated, and it has been suggested that carotenoidbased signals indicate the availability of non-pigmentary antioxidants (e.g. vitamins) that protect carotenoids from oxidation, known as the 'protection hypothesis'. To evaluate the importance of vitamins versus carotenoids as antioxidants during growth and to test the protection hypothesis, we supplemented nestling great tits, Parus major, 3, 5 and 7 days after hatching with a single dose of carotenoids and/or vitamins in a 2×2 full-factorial design. We subsequently measured body condition, antioxidant capacity, oxidative damage, fledging success and plumage reflectance. Vitamins enhanced antioxidant capacity, but did not affect oxidative damage. Vitamin-treated nestlings had higher growth rates and higher probability of fledging. In contrast, carotenoids did not affect any of these traits. Furthermore, carotenoid-based colouration increased over the breeding season in nestlings that received vitamins only. This study shows that vitamins are limiting for growth rate and fledging success, and suggests that vitamins could regulate the trade-off between growth and selfmaintenance in favour of the former. Moreover, our results are consistent with the idea that carotenoids are minor antioxidants in birds, but they do not support the protection hypothesis.

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“…The opposite effects of these two important environmental factors (food availability (this study) vs. parasitism (De Coster et al 2012)) on the oxidative status of male and female nestlings highlights the different sensitivities of the two sexes to environmental factors, with subsequent consequences on physiological mediators of variation in fitness (Noguera et al 2012;Losdat et al 2013). The higher sensitivity of female nestlings to food limitation early in life suggests that females might pay a higher price for the increasing mismatch between food availability and demand due to climate change observed in many bird species (Thomas et al 2001;Visser et al 2003) Generally, we found no strong relationships between the measured markers of oxidative damage or protection and nestling growth, fledging size or mass.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Antioxidant capacity is positively, while oxidative damage negatively related to survival (Freeman-Gallant et al 2011;Saino et al 2011). Furthermore recent studies showed that the ability of nestlings to cope with oxidative stress predicts their fledging success (Losdat et al 2013) and their recruitment probability (Noguera et al 2012), highlighting that an efficient antioxidant protection is beneficial from the first stages of life. However, investment in such an efficient oxidative protection is likely associated with costs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex-specific effects of prenatal and postnatal nutritional conditions on the oxidative status of great tit nestlings

Giordano

Tschirren

2014

Oecologia

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The early life period is characterized by fast growth and development, which can lead to high reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Young animals thus have to balance their investment in growth versus ROS defence, and this balance is likely mediated by resource availability. Consequently resources transferred prenatally by the mother and nutritional conditions experienced shortly after birth may crucially determine the oxidative status of young animals. Here, we experimentally investigated the relative importance of pre-and early postnatal nutritional conditions on the oxidative status of great tit nestlings (Parus major). We show that resources transferred by the mother through the egg and nutritional conditions encountered after hatching affect the oxidative status of nestling in a sexspecific way. Daughters of non-supplemented mothers and daughters which did not receive extra food during the early postnatal period had higher oxidative damage than sons, while no differences between sons and daughters were found when extra food was provided pre-or postnatally. No effect of the food supplementations on growth, fledging mass or tarsus length was observed, indicating that female nestlings maintained their investment in growth at the expense of ROS defence mechanisms when resources were limited. The lower priority of the antioxidant defence system for female nestlings was also evidenced by lower levels of specific antioxidant components. These results highlight the important role of early parental effects in shaping oxidative stress in the offspring, and show that the sensitivity to these parental effects is sex-specific. 2 AbstractThe early life period is characterized by fast growth and development, which can lead to high reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Young animals thus have to balance their investment in growth versus ROS defence, and this balance is likely mediated by resource availability. Consequently resources transferred prenatally by the mother and nutritional conditions experienced shortly after birth may crucially determine the oxidative status of young animals.Here we experimentally investigated the relative importance of pre-and early postnatal nutritional conditions on the oxidative status of great tit nestlings (Parus major). We show that resources transferred by the mother through the egg and nutritional conditions encountered after hatching affect the oxidative status of nestling in a sex-specific way. Daughters of non-supplemented mothers, and daughters, which did not receive extra food during the early postnatal period had higher oxidative damage than sons, while no differences between sons and daughters were found when extra food was provided pre-or postnatally. No effect of the food supplementations on growth, fledging mass or tarsus length was observed, indicating that female nestlings maintained their investment in growth at the expense of ROS defence mechanisms when resources were limited. The lower priority of the antioxidant defence system for female nestlings wa...

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Nestling erythrocyte resistance to oxidative stress predicts fledging success but not local recruitment in a wild bird

Cited by 35 publications

References 27 publications

Developmental stress increases reproductive success in male zebra finches

Developmental stress increases reproductive success in male zebra finches

Differential effects of vitamins E and C and carotenoids on growth, resistance to oxidative stress, fledging success and plumage colouration in wild great tits

Sex-specific effects of prenatal and postnatal nutritional conditions on the oxidative status of great tit nestlings

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