Project description:Little is known about how songbirds modulate sleep during migratory periods. Due to the alternation of nocturnal endurance flights and diurnal refueling stopovers, sleep is likely to be a major constraint for many migratory passerine species. Sleep may help to increase the endogenous antioxidant capacity that counteracts free radicals produced during endurance flight and reduces energy expenditure. Here, we investigated the relationship between sleep behavior, food intake, and two markers of physiological condition-the amount of energy reserves and oxidative status-in two migratory songbird species, the garden warbler (Sylvia borin) and the whitethroat (Sylvia communis). In garden warblers, birds with high energy stores were more prone to sleep during the day, while this condition-dependent sleep pattern was not present in whitethroats. In both species, birds with low energy stores were more likely to sleep with their head tucked in the feathers during nocturnal sleep. Moreover, we found a positive correlation between food intake and the extent of energy reserves in garden warblers, but not in whitethroats. Finally, we did not find significant correlations between oxidative status and sleep, or oxidative status and energy stores. Despite our study was not comparative, it suggests that different species might use different strategies to manage their energy during stopover and, additionally, it raises the possibility that migrants have evolved physiological adaptations to deal with oxidative damage produced during migration.
Project description:We used transcriptomic information from the whole blood of migrating Garden warblers (Sylvia borin) to identify key regulatory pathways related to adaptations for migration. Birds were temporarily caged during stopover and then sampled twice at different refuelling states (lean vs fat), reflecting different migratory stages (stopover arrival vs departure) after the crossing of an extended ecological barrier.
Project description:The complete mitogenome of the Lesser Whitethroat, Sylvia curruca blythi Ticehurst & Whistler, 1933 was determined, which belongs to Sylviidae, Passeriformes. The mitogenome had a length of 17,959 bp and consisted of 37 genes including 13 PCGs, 2 ribosomal RNAs (rRNA) genes, and 22 transfer RNAs (tRNA) genes. In addition, two control regions (CRs) were also existed in the mitogenome, with Sylvioidea typcial gene arrangement of cytb-trnT-CR1-trnP-nad6-trnE-CR2-trnF-rrnS. Phylogenetic analysis using 37 mitochondrial genes of 17 related species revealed that S. c. blythi had a closer relationship with S. crassirostris, and the monophyly of Sylvia was also recovered. The mitogenome data of S. c. blythi would provide useful resources for further studying the evolution of Sylvia and the subspecies taxonomic revision of S. curruca intraspecific.
Project description:We have done an expression experiment studying sexual dimorphism in gene expression in two species of songbirds, the zebra finch (Teaniopigia guttata) and the common whitethroat (Sylvia communis).
