Stress in paradise: effects of elevated corticosterone on immunity and avian malaria resilience in a Hawaiian passerine.
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PROVIDER: S-EPMC8546672 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Avian malaria, transmitted by Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes in the Hawaiian Islands, has been a primary contributor to population range limitations, declines, and extinctions for many endemic Hawaiian honeycreepers. Avian malaria is strongly influenced by climate; therefore, predicted future changes are expected to expand transmission into higher elevations and intensify and lengthen existing transmission periods at lower elevations, leading to further population declines and potential extinction of highly susceptible honeycreepers in mid- and high-elevation forests. Based on future climate changes and resulting malaria risk, we evaluated the viability of alternative conservation strategies to preserve endemic Hawaiian birds at mid and high elevations through the 21st century. We linked an epidemiological model with three alternative climatic projections from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project to predict future malaria risk and bird population dynamics for the coming century. Based on climate change predictions, proposed strategies included mosquito population suppression using modified males, release of genetically modified refractory mosquitoes, competition from other introduced mosquitoes that are not competent vectors, evolved malaria-tolerance in native honeycreepers, feral pig control to reduce mosquito larval habitats, and predator control to improve bird demographics. Transmission rates of malaria are predicted to be higher than currently observed and are likely to have larger impacts in high-elevation forests where current low rates of transmission create a refuge for highly-susceptible birds. As a result, several current and proposed conservation strategies will be insufficient to maintain existing forest bird populations. We concluded that mitigating malaria transmission at high elevations should be a primary conservation goal. Conservation strategies that maintain highly susceptible species like Iiwi (Drepanis coccinea) will likely benefit other threatened and endangered Hawai'i species, especially in high-elevation forests. Our results showed that mosquito control strategies offer potential long-term benefits to high elevation Hawaiian honeycreepers. However, combined strategies will likely be needed to preserve endemic birds at mid elevations. Given the delay required to research, develop, evaluate, and improve several of these currently untested conservation strategies we suggest that planning should begin expeditiously.
| S-EPMC5218566 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Sequence Capture on avian malaria, primarily Haemoproteus. Raw sequence reads
| PRJNA448510 | ENA
Project description:BackgroundPlasmodium parasites that cause bird malaria occur in all continents except Antarctica and are primarily transmitted by mosquitoes in the genus Culex. Culex quinquefasciatus, the mosquito vector of avian malaria in Hawai'i, became established in the islands in the 1820s. While the deadly effects of malaria on endemic bird species have been documented for many decades, vector-parasite interactions in avian malaria systems are relatively understudied.MethodsTo evaluate the gene expression response of mosquitoes exposed to a Plasmodium infection intensity known to occur naturally in Hawai'i, offspring of wild-collected Hawaiian Cx. quinquefasciatus were fed on a domestic canary infected with a fresh isolate of Plasmodium relictum GRW4 from a wild-caught Hawaiian honeycreeper. Control mosquitoes were fed on an uninfected canary. Transcriptomes of five infected and three uninfected individual mosquitoes were sequenced at each of three stages of the parasite life cycle: 24 h post feeding (hpf) during ookinete invasion; 5 days post feeding (dpf) when oocysts are developing; 10 dpf when sporozoites are released and invade the salivary glands.ResultsDifferential gene expression analyses showed that during ookinete invasion (24 hpf), genes related to oxidoreductase activity and galactose catabolism had lower expression levels in infected mosquitoes compared to controls. Oocyst development (5 dpf) was associated with reduced expression of a gene with a predicted innate immune function. At 10 dpf, infected mosquitoes had reduced expression levels of a serine protease inhibitor, and further studies should assess its role as a Plasmodium agonist in C. quinquefasciatus. Overall, the differential gene expression response of Hawaiian Culex exposed to a Plasmodium infection intensity known to occur naturally in Hawai'i was low, but more pronounced during ookinete invasion.ConclusionsThis is the first analysis of the transcriptional responses of vectors to malaria parasites in non-mammalian systems. Interestingly, few similarities were found between the response of Culex infected with a bird Plasmodium and those reported in Anopheles infected with human Plasmodium. The relatively small transcriptional changes observed in mosquito genes related to immune response and nutrient metabolism support conclusions of low fitness costs often documented in experimental challenges of Culex with avian Plasmodium.
| S-EPMC9422152 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Simple Summary This study examined how prenatal stress affects embryonic skin development. For this purpose, the model organism of the chicken embryo was used to inject the stress hormone corticosterone at an early embryonic stage. After a certain period of stress hormone exposure, macroscopic observations and tissue examinations were undertaken in order to pursue this research question. The investigations demonstrated that physiological skin development was significantly impaired by prenatal stress. This could be attributed to the fact that both cell-internal and -external components promoting cellular integrity were downregulated by the effects of stress hormones. In addition, it could be shown that the physiological cell proliferation was decreased due to prenatal stress exposure. Since artificially-produced stress hormones, so-called synthetic glucocorticoids, are also frequently used in everyday clinical practice, the authors suggest a constant reevaluation of glucocorticoid-associated treatment strategies on the basis of these results. Abstract Prenatal stress exposure is considered a risk factor for developmental deficits and postnatal behavioral disorders. While the effect of glucocorticoid-associated prenatal stress exposure has been comprehensively studied in many organ systems, there is a lack of in-depth embryological investigations regarding the effects of stress on the integumentary system. To approach this, we employed the avian embryo as a model organism and investigated the effects of systemic pathologically-elevated glucocorticoid exposure on the development of the integumentary system. After standardized corticosterone injections on embryonic day 6, we compared the stress-exposed embryos with a control cohort, using histological and immunohistochemical analyses as well as in situ hybridization. The overarching developmental deficits observed in the stress-exposed embryos were reflected through downregulation of both vimentin as well as fibronectin. In addition, a deficient composition in the different skin layers became apparent, which could be linked to a reduced expression of Dermo-1 along with significantly reduced proliferation rates. An impairment of skin appendage formation could be demonstrated by diminished expression of Sonic hedgehog. These results contribute to a more profound understanding of prenatal stress causing severe deficits in the integumentary system of developing organisms.
| S-EPMC10215502 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Pessimistic judgment biases, whereby humans or non-human animals interpret ambiguous information negatively, are hypothesised to be one of the suite of adaptive changes that comprise the vertebrate stress response. To test this hypothesis, we asked whether experimentally elevating levels of the glucocorticoid stress hormone, corticosterone, in broiler chickens produced a pessimistic judgment bias. We trained young chickens to discriminate a stimulus (paper cone) placed at two locations in an arena, one associated with reward (mealworms) and one with punishment (air puff). During seven days of non-invasive administration of either corticosterone or vehicle control, we tested the birds' responses to the cone placed at ambiguous locations between the trained locations. Corticosterone-treated birds were more likely than controls to respond as if punishment was likely when the cone was placed near to the punished location. The degree of this 'pessimism' was associated with smaller relative spleen weight, which is a documented consequence of chronic stress in chickens. We conclude that changes in corticosterone levels in chickens are sufficient to cause a specific change in decision making, dubbed 'pessimism', whereby corticosterone-treated birds showed an increased expectation of punishment in the face of ambiguous information. Pessimism could be a useful welfare indicator in chickens.
| S-EPMC5537245 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Organisms continuously face environmental fluctuations, and allocation of metabolic investment to meet changing energetic demands is fundamental to survival and reproductive success. Glucocorticoid (GC) hormones (e.g., corticosterone [CORT]) play an important role in energy acquisition and allocation in the face of environmental challenges, partly through mediation of energy metabolism. Although GCs and metabolic rate are expected to covary, surprisingly few empirical studies have demonstrated such relationships, especially in wild animals. Moreover, studies testing for associations between GCs and fitness generally do not account for among-individual differences in energy expenditure or energy allocation. We measured CORT (baseline and stress-induced) and metabolic traits (resting metabolic rate [RMR], cold-induced VO2max [Msum], and aerobic scope [the difference between Msum and RMR]) in female tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) during chick-rearing, and tested for their associations with several variables of reproductive performance. We found a positive relationship between RMR and baseline CORT, but no consistent associations between stress-induced CORT (SI-CORT) and Msum. This suggests that while baseline CORT may be a good indicator of an individual's baseline metabolic investment, SI-CORT responses are not associated with aerobic scope or the upper limits of aerobic performance. Furthermore, we found that metabolic traits were associated with reproductive performance: females with higher reproductive output showed higher Msum, and also tended to show higher RMR. Overall, these results suggest that metabolic traits are better predictors of reproductive output in tree swallows than CORT concentrations. They further point to the maximal aerobic capacity being higher in females investing more heavily in a current reproductive event, but whether this association reflects trade-offs between current and future reproductive efforts remains to be tested.
| S-EPMC7794023 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The viability of many species has been jeopardized by numerous negative factors over the centuries, but climate change is predicted to accelerate and increase the pressure of many of these threats, leading to extinctions. The Hawaiian honeycreepers, famous for their spectacular adaptive radiation, are predicted to experience negative responses to climate change, given their susceptibility to introduced disease, the strong linkage of disease distribution to climatic conditions, and their current distribution. We document the rapid collapse of the native avifauna on the island of Kaua'i that corresponds to changes in climate and disease prevalence. Although multiple factors may be pressuring the community, we suggest that a tipping point has been crossed in which temperatures in forest habitats at high elevations have reached a threshold that facilitates the development of avian malaria and its vector throughout these species' ranges. Continued incursion of invasive weeds and non-native avian competitors may be facilitated by climate change and could also contribute to declines. If current rates of decline continue, we predict multiple extinctions in the coming decades. Kaua'i represents an early warning for the forest bird communities on the Maui and Hawai'i islands, as well as other species around the world that are trapped within a climatic space that is rapidly disappearing.
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Project description:Assessment of costs accompanying activation of immune system and related neuroendocrine pathways is essential for understanding the selective forces operating on these systems. Here we attempted to detect such costs in terms of disruption to redox balance and interference between different immune system components in captive wild-caught greenfinches (Carduelis chloris). Study birds were subjected to an endotoxin-induced inflammatory challenge and temporary exposure to a psychological stressor (an image of a predator) in a 2*2 factorial experiment. Injection of bacterial endotoxin resulted in up-regulation of two markers of antioxidant protection - erythrocyte glutathione, and plasma oxygen radical absorbance (OXY). These findings suggest that inflammatory responses alter redox homeostasis. However, no effect on markers of oxidative damage to proteins or DNA in erythrocytes could be detected. We found no evidence that the endotoxin injection interfered with antibody production against Brucella abortus antigen or the intensity of chronic coccidiosis. The hypothesis of within-immune system trade-offs as a cost of immunity was thus not supported in our model system. We showed for the first time that administration of endotoxin can reduce the level of corticosterone deposited into feathers. This finding suggests a down-regulation of the corticosterone secretion cascade due to an endotoxin-induced immune response, a phenomenon that has not been reported previously. Exposure to the predator image did not affect any of the measured physiological parameters.
| S-EPMC3689720 | biostudies-literature
Project description:There is evidence of offspring sex ratio adjustment in a range of species, but the potential mechanisms remain largely unknown. Elevated maternal corticosterone (CORT) is associated with factors that can favour brood sex ratio adjustment, such as reduced maternal condition, food availability and partner attractiveness. Therefore, the steroid hormone has been suggested to play a key role in sex ratio manipulation. However, despite correlative and causal evidence CORT is linked to sex ratio manipulation in some avian species, the timing of adjustment varies between studies. Consequently, whether CORT is consistently involved in sex-ratio adjustment, and how the hormone acts as a mechanism for this adjustment remains unclear. Here we measured maternal baseline CORT and body condition in free-living blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) over three years and related these factors to brood sex ratio and nestling quality. In addition, a non-invasive technique was employed to experimentally elevate maternal CORT during egg laying, and its effects upon sex ratio and nestling quality were measured. We found that maternal CORT was not correlated with brood sex ratio, but mothers with elevated CORT fledged lighter offspring. Also, experimental elevation of maternal CORT did not influence brood sex ratio or nestling quality. In one year, mothers in superior body condition produced male biased broods, and maternal condition was positively correlated with both nestling mass and growth rate in all years. Unlike previous studies maternal condition was not correlated with maternal CORT. This study provides evidence that maternal condition is linked to brood sex ratio manipulation in blue tits. However, maternal baseline CORT may not be the mechanistic link between the maternal condition and sex ratio adjustment. Overall, this study serves to highlight the complexity of sex ratio adjustment in birds and the difficulties associated with identifying sex biasing mechanisms.
| S-EPMC4210198 | biostudies-literature
Project description:During times of maternal stress, developing embryos can be exposed to elevated levels of glucocorticoids, which can affect development and permanently alter offspring phenotype. In placental species, the placenta mediates fetal exposure to maternal glucocorticoids via metabolism, yet the placenta itself responds to glucocorticoids to regulate offspring growth and development. In oviparous species, maternal glucocorticoids can be deposited into the egg yolk and are metabolized early in development. This metabolism is mediated by the extraembryonic membranes, but it is unknown if the extraembryonic membranes also respond to maternal glucocorticoids in a way comparable to the placenta. In this study, we quantified the expression of acyl-CoA thioesterase 13 (Acot13) as an initial marker of the membrane's response to corticosterone in chicken (Gallus gallus) eggs. Acot13 regulates fatty acid processing in the embryo, to potentially regulate resource availability during development. We addressed the following questions using Acot13 expression: 1) Do the extraembryonic membranes respond to yolk corticosterone early in development? 2) Is the response to corticosterone dependent on the dose of corticosterone? 3) What is the duration of the response to corticosterone? 4) Does a metabolite of corticosterone (5β-corticosterone) elicit the same response as corticosterone? We found that corticosterone significantly induces the expression of Acot13 on day four of development and that expression of Acot13 increases with the dose of corticosterone. Further, we found expression of Acot13 is significantly elevated by corticosterone on days four and six of development compared to oil treated eggs, but not on days eight and ten. Although this response is transient, it occurs during a critical period of development and could initiate a cascade of events that ultimately alter offspring phenotype. Finally, we found that 5β-corticosterone does not increase the expression of Acot13, indicating that metabolism inactivates corticosterone. Ultimately, this study provides insight into the mechanisms underlying how maternally deposited glucocorticoids can affect embryonic development.
| S-EPMC10836647 | biostudies-literature