Separate effects of macronutrient concentration and balance on plastic gut responses in locusts |
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Authors: | David Raubenheimer Kate Bassil |
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Institution: | (1) Liggins Institute and School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand;(2) Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK;(3) Present address: Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto, 155 College Street, Toronto, ON, Canada |
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Abstract: | It is well established that animal guts are phenotypically plastic, adjusting inter-alia to diet quality. However, the relative
contributions due to the two principal dimensions of diet “quality”—nutrient concentration and nutrient balance—remain to
be teased apart. We report an experiment using synthetic foods in which the balance and overall concentration (in relation
to indigestible cellulose) of protein and digestible carbohydrate were varied orthogonally, and the effects on the dry mass
of locust guts measured. There were three principal results: (1) larger guts were associated with dilute compared with concentrated
diets, suggesting a compensatory response to ameliorate the impact of reduced diet quality; (2) there was, by contrast, an
anti-compensatory response to nutrient imbalance, where larger guts were associated with surplus protein intake; (3) the experimental
group given the food that contained low protein and low cellulose, the composition that predicted the smallest guts, showed
a bimodal response in which half of the insects had guts that were larger than expected for their cellulose intake, suggesting
that they were able to respond to a protein-related cue in the absence of significant dietary fibre. We discuss these results
in relation to regulatory theory. |
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Keywords: | Nutrient balance Dietary fibre Gut plasticity Phenotypic plasticity |
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