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Telomere length correlates with physiological and behavioural responses of a long-lived seabird to an ecologically relevant challenge

Determinants of individual variation in reallocation of limited resources towards self-maintenance versus reproduction are not well known. We tested the hypothesis that individual heterogeneity in long-term ‘somatic state’ (i) explains variation in endocrine and behavioural responses to environmenta...

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Autores principales: Benowitz-Fredericks, Z. M., Lacey, L. M., Whelan, S., Will, A. P., Hatch, S. A., Kitaysky, A. S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9277278/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35858061
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0139
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author Benowitz-Fredericks, Z. M.
Lacey, L. M.
Whelan, S.
Will, A. P.
Hatch, S. A.
Kitaysky, A. S.
author_facet Benowitz-Fredericks, Z. M.
Lacey, L. M.
Whelan, S.
Will, A. P.
Hatch, S. A.
Kitaysky, A. S.
author_sort Benowitz-Fredericks, Z. M.
collection PubMed
description Determinants of individual variation in reallocation of limited resources towards self-maintenance versus reproduction are not well known. We tested the hypothesis that individual heterogeneity in long-term ‘somatic state’ (i) explains variation in endocrine and behavioural responses to environmental challenges, and (ii) is associated with variation in strategies for allocating to self-maintenance versus reproduction. We used relative telomere length as an indicator of somatic state and experimentally generated an abrupt short-term reduction of food availability (withdrawal of food supplementation) for free-living seabirds (black-legged kittiwakes, Rissa tridactyla). Incubating male kittiwakes responded to withdrawal by increasing circulating corticosterone and losing more weight compared to continuously supplemented controls. Males with longer telomeres increased time in directed travel regardless of treatment, while experiencing smaller increases in corticosterone. Males with longer telomeres fledged more chicks in the control group and tended to be more likely to return regardless of treatment. This study supports the hypothesis that somatic state can explain variation in short-term physiological and behavioural responses to challenges, and longer-term consequences for fitness. Male kittiwakes with longer telomeres appear to have prioritized investment in self over investment in offspring under challenging conditions.
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spelling pubmed-92772782022-07-13 Telomere length correlates with physiological and behavioural responses of a long-lived seabird to an ecologically relevant challenge Benowitz-Fredericks, Z. M. Lacey, L. M. Whelan, S. Will, A. P. Hatch, S. A. Kitaysky, A. S. Proc Biol Sci Development and Physiology Determinants of individual variation in reallocation of limited resources towards self-maintenance versus reproduction are not well known. We tested the hypothesis that individual heterogeneity in long-term ‘somatic state’ (i) explains variation in endocrine and behavioural responses to environmental challenges, and (ii) is associated with variation in strategies for allocating to self-maintenance versus reproduction. We used relative telomere length as an indicator of somatic state and experimentally generated an abrupt short-term reduction of food availability (withdrawal of food supplementation) for free-living seabirds (black-legged kittiwakes, Rissa tridactyla). Incubating male kittiwakes responded to withdrawal by increasing circulating corticosterone and losing more weight compared to continuously supplemented controls. Males with longer telomeres increased time in directed travel regardless of treatment, while experiencing smaller increases in corticosterone. Males with longer telomeres fledged more chicks in the control group and tended to be more likely to return regardless of treatment. This study supports the hypothesis that somatic state can explain variation in short-term physiological and behavioural responses to challenges, and longer-term consequences for fitness. Male kittiwakes with longer telomeres appear to have prioritized investment in self over investment in offspring under challenging conditions. The Royal Society 2022-07-13 2022-07-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9277278/ /pubmed/35858061 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0139 Text en © 2022 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Development and Physiology
Benowitz-Fredericks, Z. M.
Lacey, L. M.
Whelan, S.
Will, A. P.
Hatch, S. A.
Kitaysky, A. S.
Telomere length correlates with physiological and behavioural responses of a long-lived seabird to an ecologically relevant challenge
title Telomere length correlates with physiological and behavioural responses of a long-lived seabird to an ecologically relevant challenge
title_full Telomere length correlates with physiological and behavioural responses of a long-lived seabird to an ecologically relevant challenge
title_fullStr Telomere length correlates with physiological and behavioural responses of a long-lived seabird to an ecologically relevant challenge
title_full_unstemmed Telomere length correlates with physiological and behavioural responses of a long-lived seabird to an ecologically relevant challenge
title_short Telomere length correlates with physiological and behavioural responses of a long-lived seabird to an ecologically relevant challenge
title_sort telomere length correlates with physiological and behavioural responses of a long-lived seabird to an ecologically relevant challenge
topic Development and Physiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9277278/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35858061
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0139
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