1. Place animal in induction chamber and anesthetize the mouse and ensure sedation. 2. Once the animal is sedated, move it to a nose cone for hair removal using cream. Only apply cream to the area of the chest that will be utilized for imaging. Once the hair is removed, wipe area with wet gauze to ensure all hair is removed. 3. Move the animal to the imaging platform and tape its paws to the ECG lead plates and insert rectal probe. Body temperature should be maintained at 36-37°C. During imaging, reduce anesthesia to maintain proper heart rate. If the animal shows signs of being awake, use a higher concentration of anesthetic.

人唾液天疱疮抗原的纯化

Phenotypic integration refers to the study of complex patterns of covariation among functionally related traits in a given organism. It has been investigated throughout the 20th century, but has only recently risen to the forefront of evolutionary ecological research. In this essay, I identify the reasons for this late flourishing of studies on integration, and discuss some of the major areas of current endeavour: the interplay of adaptation and constraints, the genetic and molecular bases of integration, the role of phenotypic plasticity, macroevolutionary studies of integration, and statistical and conceptual issues in the study of the evolution of complex phenotypes. I then conclude with a brief discussion of what I see as the major future directions of research on phenotypic integration and how they relate to our more general quest for the understanding of phenotypic evolution within the neo-Darwinian framework. I suggest that studying integration provides a particularly stimulating and truly interdisciplinary convergence of researchers from fields as disparate as molecular genetics, developmental biology, evolutionary ecology, palaeontology and even philosophy of science.

/pdf/phenotypic-integration-studying-the-ecology-and-evolution-of-42ojslpn9c.pdf

Phenotypic integration: studying the ecology and evolution of complex phenotypes

In order to compensate for the resource demands of reproduction, organisms usually increase the amount of total food resources available. This may be achieved by different tactics of resource use that also include foraging decisions. Two such general tactics are discussed in this paper under the concepts of capital and income breeding. These are defined mainly from the temporal distribution of resource acquisition relative to resource use. A capital breeder acquires its resources in advance and store them endogenously or exogenously until they are needed to supply aspects of offspring production. An income breeder, on the other hand, adjusts its food intake concurrently with breeding, without reliance on stores. In a perfectly predictable environment without limited resources, income breeding is the best option since capital breeders may have to pay a number of energetic and demographic costs for their stored resources. However, under unpredictable food conditions, food/time limitations, and risky foraging conditions, capital breeding offers many benefits. The costing systems (pre- or postbreeding costs) induced by capital and income breeding will largely influence the opportunity for these energetic tactics to evolve. While capital and income breeders may potentially experience both pre- and postbreeding costs, capital breeders may be more exposed to prebreeding costs due to predation in connection with acquisition and carriage of stores.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3545800.pdf

Capital and income breeding as alternative tactics of resource use in reproduction

Avian fat storage is associated with both benefits and costs. Although the benefits of maintaining higher energetic reserves have long been considered, the associated costs have received far less attention. Spatial and temporal patterns of fat storage, together with experimental data, indicate that birds are capable of actively regulating their energetic reserves at levels below physiological or environmental maxima. This regulation implies that fat storage entails a cost. Evidence of potential costs are reviewed and discussed under the following headings: mass-dependent metabolism, mass-dependent predation risk, mass-dependent risk of injury, mass-dependent foraging, pathological costs and reproductive costs. Although the evidence that fat storage is costly is convincing, key empirical data are lacking. We indicate the sorts of data which need to be gathered and suggest ways in which this might be done. We go on to discuss the interaction of these costs and their relevance to between-individual patterns of fat storage and the interpretation of ‘condition indices’. Because many of the purported costs of fat storage are dependent upon changes in body mass, or wing loading, our review is also relevant to other phenomena which may involve mass-dependent costs, such as gonadal hypertrophy, transport of food items and primary moult.

The ecological costs of avian fat storage

All animals face the possibility of limitations in food resources that could ultimately lead to starvation-induced mortality. The primary goal of this review is to characterize the various physiological strategies that allow different animals to survive starvation. The ancillary goals of this work are to identify areas in which investigations of starvation can be improved and to discuss recent advances and emerging directions in starvation research. The ubiquity of food limitation among animals, inconsistent terminology associated with starvation and fasting, and rationale for scientific investigations into starvation are discussed. Similarities and differences with regard to carbohydrate, lipid, and protein metabolism during starvation are also examined in a comparative context. Examples from the literature are used to underscore areas in which reporting and statistical practices, particularly those involved with starvation-induced changes in body composition and starvation-induced hypometabolism can be improved. The review concludes by highlighting several recent advances and promising research directions in starvation physiology. Because the hundreds of studies reviewed here vary so widely in their experimental designs and treatments, formal comparisons of starvation responses among studies and taxa are generally precluded; nevertheless, it is my aim to provide a starting point from which we may develop novel approaches, tools, and hypotheses to facilitate meaningful investigations into the physiology of starvation in animals.

Starvation physiology: reviewing the different strategies animals use to survive a common challenge.

An animal's nutritional status depends on (1) nutrient accessibility, (2) nutrient demand, and (3) physiological, metabolic, morphological, and behavioral compensations that avert or minimize discrepancies, if any, between the first two. The main thesis of this essay is that the diversity and potency of such compensatory mechanisms have often been underrated, and hence the frequency and intensity of nutritional stress in free-living animals have often been exaggerated. This theme is explored in conjunction with an inventory of the modes of compensation for actual or potential dietary deficiencies.

Periods of Nutritional Stress in the Annual Cycles of Endotherms: Fact or Fiction?

The apparent nutrient and energy costs of moult in Gambel's Sparrows estimated from the materials deposited in the integument are relatively mild compared with the maintenance requirements (5.3% of BMR, and 45% of the minimum maintenance requirement for protein (MMRP)) and with those of reproduction (34% BMR and 165% MMRP), except perhaps for cystine. Measures of the actual costs of moult indicate that processes in addition to plumage synthesis combine to create daily energy costs for peak moult equaling 58% BMR. These processes include (1) recrudescence of the integument, (2) a cyclic osteoporosis, and (3) a large diel cycling in body protein content (as much as 8%). The main adjustments in nutritional requirements during moult are greater needs for protein to supply substrate and for energy. Also, the needs for iron for erythrocyte production (item 1 above) and for calcium for bone formation (item 2 above) presumably increase. Analyses of several food groups reveal that the energy and essential amino acid (EAA) needs for moult can likely be met by a wide variety of food types. When the total daily EAA needs of moulting birds are taken together the profile of the EAA demands is realigned so that the disproportionately high demand for cystine for keratin synthesis is obscured. Consequently, dietary protein can be used more efficiently for whole-body protein synthesis.

Energy and nutrient use during moult by White-crowned Sparrows Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii

It has often been alleged that avian molt can be interrupted or delayed by food deprivation or malnutrition. We examined this experimentally in captive White-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii). Beginning either at the natural onset of postnuptial molt or 1 month before its onset, groups of birds were fed either inadequate amounts of a balanced diet (60 or 80% of the ad libitum intake of a control group) or unlimited amounts of a diet deficient only in cyst(e)ine and methionine. Except in the 60% premolt group, the malnourished birds did not postpone or interrupt molt in spite of losses ranging from 20 to 38% of initial body mass. Molt was significantly protracted in all except the 60% premolt group as a result of both increased shedding interval and decreased feather growth rates. Their new plumage weighed less than that of control birds, and their remiges were slightly shorter and often deformed or achromatic. The occurrence of fault bars corresponded to the times when the birds were hand...

Malnutrition during the postnuptial molt of White-crowned Sparrows: feather growth and quality

Sparrows increase their rates of tissue and whole-body protein synthesis during the annual molt

In certain circumstances, wild animals may obtain adequate nutrition merely by random consumption of foods but, in other circumstances, may need to feed selectively for specific nutrients. For instance, it has been argued that requirements for certain amino acids may be so great during periods of production such as egg laying or molt that highly selective feeding is necessary to avert malnutrition. We evaluated the ability of captive molting white-crowned sparrows to choose between two semisynthetic diets (Choice) that were essentially identical, except in sulfur-amino acid (SAA = cyst(e)ine + methionine) concentration. The high-SAA diet was more than nutritionally adequate, and the low-SAA diet was inadequate for molting sparrows. Two parallel experimental groups were fed only the high-SAA diet (Control) or the low-SAA diet (Deficient), respectively. Food was supplied to each bird in two glass food cups, side by side. Choice birds thus had free access to a high-low-SAA-diet pair, while Control (high-high...

Mary E. Murphy

Papers

Periods of Nutritional Stress in the Annual Cycles of Endotherms: Fact or Fiction?

Energy and nutrient use during moult by White-crowned Sparrows Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii

Malnutrition during the postnuptial molt of White-crowned Sparrows: feather growth and quality

Sparrows increase their rates of tissue and whole-body protein synthesis during the annual molt

Dietary Discrimination by Molting White-Crowned Sparrows Given Diets Differing Only in Sulfur Amino Acid Concentration