Compensatory growth response in three-spined stickleback in relation to feed-deprivation protocols |
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Authors: | X Zhu L Wu Y Cui† Y Yang R J Wootton‡§ |
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Institution: | State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei Province, P.R. China and;Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, SY23 3DA, Wales, U.K. |
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Abstract: | Different protocols of food deprivation were used to bring two groups of juvenile three-spined sticklebacks Gasterosteus aculeatus to the same reduced body mass in comparison with a control group fed daily ad libitum . One group experienced 1 week of deprivation then 2 weeks on maintenance rations. The second group experienced 1 week of ad libitum feeding followed by 2 weeks of deprivation. The deprived groups were reduced to a mean mass of c . 80% of controls. The compensatory growth response shown when ad libitum feeding was resumed was independent of the trajectory by which the three-spined sticklebacks had reached the reduced body mass. The compensatory response was sufficient to return the deprived groups to the mass and length trajectories shown by the control group within 4 weeks. There was full compensation for dry mass and total lipid, but incomplete compensation for lipid-free dry mass. Hyperphagia and increased growth efficiency were present in the re-feeding phase, but there was a lag of a week before the hyperphagia was established. The consistency of the compensatory response of immature three-spined sticklebacks provides a potential model system for the analysis and prediction of appetite and growth in teleosts. |
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Keywords: | compensatory growth growth efficiency homeostasis hyperphagia three-spined stickleback |
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