Dataset Information

Baseline and stress-induced corticosterone levels are heritable and genetically correlated in a barn owl population.

ABSTRACT: The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is responsible for the regulation of corticosterone, a hormone that is essential in the mediation of energy allocation and physiological stress. As a continuous source of challenge and stress for organisms, the environment has promoted the evolution of physiological adaptations and led to a great variation in corticosterone profiles within or among individuals, populations and species. In order to evolve via natural selection, corticosterone levels do not only depend on the strength of selection exerted on them, but also on the extent to which the regulation of corticosterone is heritable. Nevertheless, the heritability of corticosterone profiles in wild populations is still poorly understood. In this study, we estimated the heritability of baseline and stress-induced corticosterone levels in barn owl (Tyto alba) nestlings from 8 years of data, using a multivariate animal model based on a behavioural pedigree. We found that baseline and stress-induced corticosterone levels are strongly genetically correlated (r?=?0.68-0.80) and that the heritability of stress-induced corticosterone levels (h2?=?0.24-0.33) was moderate and similar to the heritability of baseline corticosterone levels (h2?=?0.19-0.30). These findings suggest that the regulation of stress-induced corticosterone and baseline levels evolves at a similar pace when selection acts with the same intensity on both traits and that contrary to previous studies, the evolution of baseline and stress-induced level is interdependent in barn owls, as they may be strongly genetically correlated.

SUBMITTER: Beziers P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6781159 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Baseline and stress-induced corticosterone levels are heritable and genetically correlated in a barn owl population.

Béziers Paul P San-Jose Luis M LM Almasi Bettina B Jenni Lukas L Roulin Alexandre A

Heredity 20190305 3

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is responsible for the regulation of corticosterone, a hormone that is essential in the mediation of energy allocation and physiological stress. As a continuous source of challenge and stress for organisms, the environment has promoted the evolution of physiological adaptations and led to a great variation in corticosterone profiles within or among individuals, populations and species. In order to evolve via natural selection, corticosterone levels d ...[more]

PMID: 30837668

Similar Datasets

Project description:Rates of human-induced environmental change continue increasing with human population size, potentially altering animal physiology and negatively affecting wildlife. Researchers often use glucocorticoid concentrations (hormones that can be associated with stressors) to gauge the impact of anthropogenic factors (e.g. urbanization, noise and light pollution). Yet, no general relationships between human-induced environmental change and glucocorticoids have emerged. Given the number of recent studies reporting baseline and stress-induced corticosterone (the primary glucocorticoid in birds and reptiles) concentrations worldwide, it is now possible to conduct large-scale comparative analyses to test for general associations between disturbance and baseline and stress-induced corticosterone across species. Additionally, we can control for factors that may influence context, such as life history stage, environmental conditions and urban adaptability of a species. Here, we take a phylogenetically informed approach and use data from HormoneBase to test if baseline and stress-induced corticosterone are valid indicators of exposure to human footprint index, human population density, anthropogenic noise and artificial light at night in birds and reptiles. Our results show a negative relationship between anthropogenic noise and baseline corticosterone for birds characterized as urban avoiders. While our results potentially indicate that urban avoiders are more sensitive to noise than other species, overall our study suggests that the relationship between human-induced environmental change and corticosterone varies across species and contexts; we found no general relationship between human impacts and baseline and stress-induced corticosterone in birds, nor baseline corticosterone in reptiles. Therefore, it should not be assumed that high or low levels of exposure to human-induced environmental change are associated with high or low corticosterone levels, respectively, or that closely related species, or even individuals, will respond similarly. Moving forward, measuring alternative physiological traits alongside reproductive success, health and survival may provide context to better understand the potential negative effects of human-induced environmental change.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Previous studies have revealed that the response of prey species to predatory risk comprised either freezing (when the prey remained immobile), or fleeing (when it ran frantically in order to remove itself from the vicinity of the predator). Other studies, however, have suggested that the prey will adjust its behavior to risk level. The present study was designed to follow the attacks of a barn owl (Tyto alba) on common spiny mice (Acomys cahirinus) and social voles (Microtus socialis guntherei), in order to reveal the correspondence between the behavior of the owl, the risk level at each phase of the owl's attack, and the defensive behavior of the rodents. RESULTS:Spiny mice dramatically increased the traveled distance upon the appearance of the owl, and kept moving during its attack while taking long trajectories of locomotion. Defensive response in voles dichotomized: in some voles traveled distance dropped when the owl appeared, reaching zero during its attack. In other voles, traveled distance dramatically increased once the owl appeared and further increased under its attack. These defensive responses developed by gradual tuning of normal locomotor behavior in accordance with the level of risk. CONCLUSIONS:The phenotypic difference in defensive behavior between voles and spiny mice probably stems from their different habitats and motor capacities. Agility and running capacity, together with a relatively sheltered natural habitat, make fleeing the most appropriate response for spiny mice during owl attack. Clumsiness and relatively limited motor capacities, together with an open natural habitat, account for the dichotomy to freezing or fleeing in voles. Thus, the apparent species-specific anti-predator response in spiny mice and voles is based on species-specific normal locomotor behavior, which depends on the species-specific ecology and motor capacity, and behaviors like defensive attack or escape jump that are specific to life threat. The latter behaviors are brief, and irregularly inlaid in the ongoing locomotor behavior. Finally, our results show that in both voles and spiny mice there is a gradual transition from normal to defensive behavior in accordance with the increase in risk level.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Latitudinal variation in avian life histories falls along a slow-fast pace of life continuum: tropical species produce small clutches, but have a high survival probability, while in temperate species the opposite pattern is found. This study investigated whether differential investment into reproduction and survival of tropical and temperate species is paralleled by differences in the secretion of the vertebrate hormone corticosterone (CORT). Depending on circulating concentrations, CORT can both act as a metabolic (low to medium levels) and a stress hormone (high levels) and, thereby, influence reproductive decisions. Baseline and stress-induced CORT was measured across sequential stages of the breeding season in males and females of closely related taxa of stonechats (Saxicola spp) from a wide distribution area. We compared stonechats from 13 sites, representing Canary Islands, European temperate and East African tropical areas. Stonechats are highly seasonal breeders at all these sites, but vary between tropical and temperate regions with regard to reproductive investment and presumably also survival. RESULTS:In accordance with life-history theory, during parental stages, post-capture (baseline) CORT was overall lower in tropical than in temperate stonechats. However, during mating stages, tropical males had elevated post-capture (baseline) CORT concentrations, which did not differ from those of temperate males. Female and male mates of a pair showed correlated levels of post-capture CORT when sampled after simulated territorial intrusions. In contrast to the hypothesis that species with low reproduction and high annual survival should be more risk-sensitive, tropical stonechats had lower stress-induced CORT concentrations than temperate stonechats. We also found relatively high post-capture (baseline) and stress-induced CORT concentrations, in slow-paced Canary Islands stonechats. CONCLUSIONS:Our data support and refine the view that baseline CORT facilitates energetically demanding activities in males and females and reflects investment into reproduction. Low parental workload was associated with lower post-capture (baseline) CORT as expected for a slow pace of life in tropical species. On a finer resolution, however, this tropical-temperate contrast did not generally hold. Post-capture (baseline) CORT was higher during mating stages in particular in tropical males, possibly to support the energetic needs of mate-guarding. Counter to predictions based on life history theory, our data do not confirm the hypothesis that long-lived tropical populations have higher stress-induced CORT concentrations than short-lived temperate populations. Instead, in the predator-rich tropical environments of African stonechats, a dampened stress response during parental stages may increase survival probabilities of young. Overall our data further support an association between life history and baseline CORT, but challenge the role of stress-induced CORT as a mediator of tropical-temperate variation in life history.

Dataset Information

Baseline and stress-induced corticosterone levels are heritable and genetically correlated in a barn owl population.

Publications

Baseline and stress-induced corticosterone levels are heritable and genetically correlated in a barn owl population.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets