Repeatability of baseline and stress-induced corticosterone levels across early life stages in the Florida scrub-jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens)

Rensel, Michelle A.; Schoech, Stephan J.

doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2011.01.010

Cited by 82 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Studies investigating consistency in glucocorticoid responses between and within individuals are all derived from sampling plasma corticosterone in bird species and mostly share the caveat that the time frame over which measures are taken is relatively short, usually spanning days or months (e.g., Cockrem and Silverin, 2002;Romero and Reed, 2008). Results so far indicate that individuals are consistent in some aspects of their glucocorticoid excretion patterns but rather variable in other glucocorticoid response measures (e.g., high repeatability of stress-induced but not baseline glucocorticoid levels in Florida scrub jays, Rensel and Schoech, 2011). However, average glucocorticoid reaction norms and glucocorticoid plasticity as stable traits may be determined by the individual's genotype to a certain extent and thus be subject to selection (Rensel and Schoech, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Results so far indicate that individuals are consistent in some aspects of their glucocorticoid excretion patterns but rather variable in other glucocorticoid response measures (e.g., high repeatability of stress-induced but not baseline glucocorticoid levels in Florida scrub jays, Rensel and Schoech, 2011). However, average glucocorticoid reaction norms and glucocorticoid plasticity as stable traits may be determined by the individual's genotype to a certain extent and thus be subject to selection (Rensel and Schoech, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Circadian Rhythms of Urinary Cortisol Levels Vary Between Individuals in Wild Male Chimpanzees: A Reaction Norm Approach

et al. 2018

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Investigating the repeatability of trait variation between individuals, that is the amount of individual variation in relation to overall phenotypic variation, indicates an upper level of heritability and reveals whether a given trait may be subject to selection. Labile traits are characterized by high levels of flexibility and consequently low trait repeatability is expected. Indeed, research examining glucocorticoid levels in various non-mammal species found low repeatability scores. However, mammals may be different in this respect as (i) differential maternal care early in life has the potential to prime hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning and (ii) allelic variation affecting hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning has been reported. Individuals often differ from each other in average and/or plastic labile trait expression, two aspects that can be described using a reaction norm approach. Both consistent and flexible reaction norm expression has been argued to serve adaptive purposes, depending on the stability and predictability of environmental conditions. Here, we investigated both trait and reaction norm repeatability of urinary cortisol levels in wild adult male chimpanzees. To capture the expression of the circadian urinary cortisol rhythm of individual males over time, urine samples were collected throughout the day. In total data of 30 males collected over a period of 8 years were included in the dataset. No male was sampled over the whole 8-year period however. We found minor levels of trait repeatability but considerable reaction norm repeatability. This implies a minor role of genetic or priming factors on cortisol excretion, but reveals that males differ consistently in average urinary cortisol levels and the shape of the circadian urinary cortisol rhythm. Relating these results to fitness parameters will provide answers to questions on the adaptive value of reaction norm repeatability of this labile hormonal trait in the future.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Circadian Rhythms of Urinary Cortisol Levels Vary Between Individuals in Wild Male Chimpanzees: A Reaction Norm Approach

et al. 2018

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“…However, glucocorticoids are not 'stress' hormones per se, but mobilisers of energy stores 2 . As such glucocorticoid levels change also with energy requirements, time of day, age and reproductive status 3,4 , as well as in response to apparently positive situations, such as mating opportunity 5 . Glucocorticoid levels, therefore, must be interpreted cautiously and within a context.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal Imaging to Study Stress Non-invasively in Unrestrained Birds

Jerem

Herborn

McCafferty

et al. 2015

JoVE

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Stress, a central concept in biology, describes a suite of emergency responses to challenges. Among other responses, stress leads to a change in blood flow that results in a net influx of blood to key organs and an increase in core temperature. This stress-induced hyperthermia is used to assess stress. However, measuring core temperature is invasive. As blood flow is redirected to the core, the periphery of the body can cool. This paper describes a protocol where peripheral body temperature is measured non-invasively in wild blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) using infrared thermography. In the field we created a set-up bringing the birds to an ideal position in front of the camera by using a baited box. The camera takes a short thermal video recording of the undisturbed bird before applying a mild stressor (closing the box and therefore capturing the bird), and the bird's response to being trapped is recorded. The bare skin of the eye-region is the warmest area in the image. This allows an automated extraction of the maximum eye-region temperature from each image frame, followed by further steps of manual data filtering removing the most common sources of errors (motion blur, blinking). This protocol provides a time series of eye-region temperature with a fine temporal resolution that allows us to study the dynamics of the stress response non-invasively. Further work needs to demonstrate the usefulness of the method to assess stress, for instance to investigate whether eye-region temperature response is proportional to the strength of the stressor. If this can be confirmed, it will provide a valuable alternative method of stress assessment in animals and will be useful to a wide range of researchers from ecologists, conservation biologists, physiologists to animal welfare researchers.

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“…To better understand the overall corticosterone response to ACTH challenge, we calculated an integrated corticosterone response for each ACTH-treated snake, similar to the methods of Cockrem and Silverin (2002) and Rensel and Schoech (2011). For each snake, corticosterone concentration was plotted over time and the area under the curve was calculated using the trapezoid rule with Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Office 2010, Redmond, WA, USA).…”

Section: Statistical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal and sex differences in responsiveness to adrenocorticotropic hormone contribute to stress response plasticity in red-sided garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis)

Dayger

Lutterschmidt

2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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As in many vertebrates, hormonal responses to stress vary seasonally in red-sided garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis). For example, males generally exhibit reduced glucocorticoid responses to a standard stressor during the spring mating season. We asked whether variation in adrenal sensitivity to adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) explains why glucocorticoid responses to capture stress vary with sex, season and body condition in red-sided garter snakes. We measured glucocorticoids at 0, 1 and 4 h after injection with ACTH (0.1 IU g −1 body mass) or vehicle in males and females during the spring mating season and autumn prehibernation period. Because elevated glucocorticoids can influence sex steroids, we also examined androgen and estradiol responses to ACTH. ACTH treatment increased glucocorticoids in both sexes and seasons. Spring-collected males had a smaller integrated glucocorticoid response to ACTH than autumn-collected males. The integrated glucocorticoid response to ACTH differed with sex during the spring, with males having a smaller glucocorticoid response than females. Although integrated glucocorticoid responses to ACTH did not vary with body condition, we observed an interaction among season, sex and body condition. In males, ACTH treatment did not alter androgen levels in either season, but androgen levels decreased during the sampling period. Similar to previous studies, plasma estradiol was low or undetectable during the spring and autumn, and therefore any effect of ACTH treatment on estradiol could not be determined. These data provide support for a mechanism that partly explains how the hypothalamus-pituitaryadrenal (HPA) axis integrates information about season, sex and body condition: namely, variation in adrenal responsiveness to ACTH.

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Repeatability of baseline and stress-induced corticosterone levels across early life stages in the Florida scrub-jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens)

Cited by 82 publications

References 41 publications

Circadian Rhythms of Urinary Cortisol Levels Vary Between Individuals in Wild Male Chimpanzees: A Reaction Norm Approach

Circadian Rhythms of Urinary Cortisol Levels Vary Between Individuals in Wild Male Chimpanzees: A Reaction Norm Approach

Thermal Imaging to Study Stress Non-invasively in Unrestrained Birds

Seasonal and sex differences in responsiveness to adrenocorticotropic hormone contribute to stress response plasticity in red-sided garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis)

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