Plumage quality mediates a life-history trade-off in a migratory bird

Background

Moult is one of the most costly activities in the annual cycle of birds and most avian species separate moult from other energy-demanding activities, such as migration. To this end, young birds tend to undergo the first post-juvenile moult before the onset of migration, but in some species the time window for the pre-migratory feather replacement is too narrow. We hypothesized that in such species an increased investment in the structural quality of juvenile feathers may allow to retain juvenile plumage throughout the entire migratory period and delay moult until arriving at wintering grounds, thus avoiding a moult-migration overlap.

Methods

The effect of juvenile plumage quality on the occurrence of moult-migration overlap was studied in a migratory shorebird, the common snipe Gallinago gallinago. Ca. 400 of first-year common snipe were captured during their final stage of autumn migration through Central Europe. The quality of juvenile feathers was assessed as the mass-length residuals of retained juvenile rectrices. Condition of migrating birds was assessed with the mass of accumulated fat reserves and whole-blood hemoglobin concentration. Path analysis was used to disentangle complex interrelationships between plumage quality, moult and body condition.

Results

Snipe which grew higher-quality feathers in the pre-fledging period were less likely to initiate moult during migration. Individuals moulting during migration had lower fat loads and hemoglobin concentrations compared to non-moulting birds, suggesting a trade-off in resource allocation, where energetic costs of moult reduced both energy reserves available for migration and resources available for maintenance of high oxygen capacity of blood.

Conclusions

The results of this study indicate that a major life-history trade-off in a migratory bird may be mediated by the quality of juvenile plumage. This is consistent with a silver spoon effect, where early-life investment in feather quality affects future performance of birds during migration period. Our results strongly suggest that the juvenile plumage, although retained for a relatively short period of time, may have profound consequences for individuals’ fitness.

     

Subcellular distribution of taurine and cysteinesulphinate decarboxylase in developing rat brain

The concentration of taurine and the activities of cysteinesulphinate decarboxylase and glutamate decarboxylase have been measured in rat brain. During development, taurine exhibited a decrease in concentration unrelated to the activity of cysteinesulphinate decarboxylase which increased during the same period. The distribution of taurine in subcellular fractions of adult and 7-day-old rat brain was typical of most amino acids, whereas half of the cysteinesulphinate decarboxylase activity was found in the nerve-ending cytoplasm. In anatomical distribution, taurine displayed great regional heterogeneity but both cysteinesulphinate decarboxylase and glutamate decarboxylase were more evenly distributed. Hypertaurinaemia was shown to have no effect on the entry of glycine into the brain or on its utilization in protein synthesis.     

Coding sequence and growth regulation of the human vimentin gene.

We have established the complete coding sequence of the human vimentin gene. It had 91% homology to the coding sequence of the Syrian hamster vimentin gene (Quax et al., Cell 35:215-223, 1983) and partial homology to several other sequences coding for intermediate filament proteins. The most striking difference between the Syrian hamster and human vimentin genes was in the 3' untranslated region, which was considerably longer in the Syrian hamster. Using RNA blots and a human vimentin cDNA clone from an Okayama-Berg library, we have established that expression of the vimentin gene was growth regulated. The steady-state levels of cytoplasmic vimentin mRNA in 3T3 cells were increased by serum and platelet-derived growth factor, but not by epidermal growth factor, insulin, or platelet-poor plasma. The increase in expression of the vimentin gene that occurred when G0-phase cells were stimulated to proliferate was detected in six different cell types from four different species. The expression of the vimentin gene was also increased when HL60 cells were induced to differentiate by phorbol esters; it decreased when differentiation was induced by retinoic acid.     

études sur les phénomenes électrocapillaires

Sans résuméI. Analyse électrocapillaire des matières colorantes. Rev. gén. Mat. Col. 1926 Vol. 30 pp 34–45II. Phénomènes électrocapillaires et le problème du cancer. Arch. Med. Exper. 1926 Vol. I p 381III. Phénomènes électrocapillaires et l'antagonismes microbiens. Bol. Istituto Sier. Milano 1927 Vol. VI p 313.     

Identification and localization of a dogfish homolog of human cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator.

Chloride channels in the apical plasma membrane of cells in the dogfish rectal gland have served as a model system for the study of regulation of chloride flux by changes in intracellular cyclic AMP levels. Similar regulation by cyclic AMP has been described for channels in cells of human secretory epithelia where defective regulation by cyclic AMP-dependent protein phosphorylation is caused by mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). We have isolated a cDNA clone from the rectal gland encoding a protein that is 72% identical to the human CFTR. One of the major phosphorylation sites in CFTR is absent in the dogfish protein. The dogfish protein has, however, four additional putative substrate sites for the cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase. A peptide antibody, which was raised against an amino acid sequence common to both the human and dogfish CFTR sequences, recognizes proteins with similar molecular masses (160 kDa) in the dogfish gland and in mammalian lung. Immunolocalization studies with this antibody show that the putative dogfish CFTR is localized to the apical membrane of cells lining the lumen of the rectal gland.     

Analysis of higher-primate phylogeny from transversion differences in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA by Lake's methods of evolutionary parsimony and operator metrics

In the companion paper (Holmquist et al. 1988), we concluded that there is no agreement on either the correct branching order or differential rates of evolution among the higher primates, and we examined in depth why this uncertainty in the evolutionary understanding of our closest living relatives persists. Recently, Lake developed two novel methods, based on group properties of transition and transversion operators, that (a) permit, in principle, objective resolution of problems of the above type and (b) attach a statistical significance level to the conclusions drawn. In the present paper, we develop formulas for using these two methods in tandem and apply them to study transversion differences in (1) nuclear DNA for a 7-kb segment of the psi eta-globin locus and a 3-kb intergenic region between the psi beta- and delta- globin loci and (2) mitochondrial DNA for the 896-bp fragment of Brown et al. Although each of these nucleotide sequence regions has its characteristic tempo and mode of evolution, the nuclear and mitochondrial data together, comprising a total of 10,939 base positions, support a Homo/Pan clade at the 97% confidence level. If we calibrate the divergence point for humans and chimpanzees at 5 Myr, consideration of the transversion branch lengths for the combined nuclear data indicates that the gorilla lineage branched off 600,000- 900,000 years prior to that, although the 2 sigma sampling errors do not preclude either a temporal trifurcation for the three species or a considerably more ancient branch point for the gorilla. To resolve the length of this central branch to a relative accuracy of 25% and 30% will require a factor of 16 and nine times more data, respectively-- i.e., in excess of 100,000 homologous nucleotides for each of the four primates. For the nuclear genes, heterogeneity in evolutionary rates between different parts of the genome is mostly restricted to the human lineage for these two segments. The lineage leading to chimpanzees has evolved 0.4 (3-kb fragment) to 3.5 (7-kb segment) times as rapidly as the lineage leading to humans, and that leading to the gorilla has evolved approximately one-fifth to one-half as rapidly as that leading to chimpanzees. Thus, even local molecular clocks can "tick" badly. As significant is the fact that virtually contiguous parts of the genome tick at markedly different rates.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)      

Structural versatility of peptides from Cα,α-dialkylated glycines. I. A conformational energy computation and x-ray diffraction study of homo-peptides from Cα,α-diethylglycine

Conformational energy computations on a derivative and a homo-dipeptide of C^α,α-diethylglycine were performed. In both cases the N- and C-terminal groups are blocked as acetamido and methylamido moieties, respectively. It was found that the C^α,α-diethylglycine residues are conformationally restricted and that the minimum energy conformation corresponds to the fully extended C₅ structure when the N? C^α? C′ bond angle is smaller than 108° (as experimentally observed). The results of the theoretical analysis are in agreement with the crystal-state structural propensity of the complete series of N-trifluoroacetylated homo-peptides of this C^α,α-dialkylated residue from monomer to pentamer, determined by x-ray diffraction and also described in this work. Interestingly, for the first time, a crystallographically planar peptide backbone was observed (in the protected tripeptide). A comparison with peptides of C^α,α-dimethylglycine, C^α-methyl, C^α-ethylglycine, and C^α,α-di-n-propylglycine indicates that the fully extended conformation becomes more stable than the helical structures when both amino acid side-chain C^β atoms are substituted.