Sprint speed is unaffected by dietary manipulation in trained male Anolis carolinensis lizards

Abstract

Performance traits are energetically costly, and their expression and use can drive trade‐offs with other energetically costly life‐history traits. However, different performance traits incur distinct costs and may be sensitive to both resource limitation and to the types of resources that are accrued. Protein is likely to be especially important for supporting burst performance traits such as sprint speed, but the effect of varying diet composition on sprint training in lizards, an emerging model system for exercise training, is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that the response to sprint training is sensitive to both the type and amount of resources in Anolis carolinensis. We also measured bite force across all treatments as a control whole‐organism performance trait that should be unaffected by locomotor training. Both mass and bite force are reduced by dietary restriction over the course of 9 weeks of sprint training, but sprint speed is unaffected by either training or dietary restriction relative to controls. Furthermore, protein supplementation does not rescue a decline in either mass or bite force in trained, diet‐restricted males. These results contrast with those for endurance training, and suggest that sprint speed is more canalized than either endurance or bite force in green anoles.

The maternal energetic environment affects both egg and offspring phenotypes in green anole lizards (Anolis carolinensis)

“…The UT lizards were handled for 30 s three times a week to mitigate any stress effects due to the increase in handling time experienced by the ST animals (Husak et al, 2015 ). As for the diet treatment, we use the UT and ST labels for consistency with the earlier study (here Marks et al, 2022 ), but we note that the UT treatment corresponds to the control situation in sprint training studies (Husak et al, 2015 ; Husak & Lailvaux, 2019 ; Lailvaux et al, 2020 ).…”