Corticosterone: effects on feather quality and deposition into feathers

Jenni-Eiermann, Susanne; Helfenstein, Fabrice; Vallat, Armelle; Glauser, Gaëtan; Jenni, Lukas

doi:10.1111/2041-210x.12314

Cited by 107 publications

(147 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Importantly, we measured immediate corticosterone levels (when the chicks were 9-days old). It is plausible that an integrative measure of corticosterone levels (for instance, in the feathers) may provide a more accurate assessment of the stress levels experienced by the chicks throughout their development [21]. In addition, other factors could have accounted for the difference in telomere length between experimental chicks and controls.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Traffic noise exposure affects telomere length in nestling house sparrows

Meillère¹,

Brischoux²,

Ribout³

et al. 2015

Biol. Lett.

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In a consistently urbanizing world, anthropogenic noise has become almost omnipresent, and there are increasing evidence that high noise levels can have major impacts on wildlife. While the effects of anthropogenic noise exposure on adult animals have been widely studied, surprisingly, there has been little consideration of the effects of noise pollution on developing organisms. Yet, environmental conditions experienced in early life can have dramatic lifelong consequences for fitness. Here, we experimentally manipulated the acoustic environment of free-living house sparrows (Passer domesticus) breeding in nest boxes. We focused on the impact of such disturbance on nestlings' telomere length and fledging success, as telomeres (the protective ends of chromosomes) appear to be a promising predictor of longevity. We showed that despite the absence of any obvious immediate consequences (growth and fledging success), nestlings reared under traffic noise exposure exhibited reduced telomere lengths compared with their unexposed neighbours. Although the mechanisms responsible for this effect remain to be determined, our results provide the first experimental evidence that noise alone can affect a wild vertebrate's early-life telomere length. This suggests that noise exposure may entail important costs for developing organisms.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Traffic noise exposure affects telomere length in nestling house sparrows

Meillère¹,

Brischoux²,

Ribout³

et al. 2015

Biol. Lett.

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“…Romero, Strochlic & Wingfield, 2005;DesRochers et al, 2009;Almasi et al, 2012;Jenni-Eiermann et al, 2015). Corticosterone has complex, contrasting and even opposing effects when related to food intake and feather growth.…”

Section: (4) Corticosteronementioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, Murphy et al (1988) found that synthetic diets deficient in sulfur-containing amino acids produced these pale bands without generating fault bars. Experimental studies in barn owls (Tyto alba) (Roulin et al, 2008) and feral pigeons (Columba livia) (Jenni-Eiermann et al, 2015) report increases in the frequency of pale bands in corticosterone-implanted birds (see Fig. 3 in Jenni-Eiermann et al, 2015), but they did not report the formation of fault bars.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Experimental studies in barn owls (Tyto alba) (Roulin et al, 2008) and feral pigeons (Columba livia) (Jenni-Eiermann et al, 2015) report increases in the frequency of pale bands in corticosterone-implanted birds (see Fig. 3 in Jenni-Eiermann et al, 2015), but they did not report the formation of fault bars. Although fault bars and pale bands are both feather malformations, they appear to have different proximal causes; thus, we advocate treating fault bars, feather holes, and pale bands as different phenomena (Pap et al, 2007;Vágási, 2014), while we encourage studying them simultaneously.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Fault bars in bird feathers: mechanisms, and ecological and evolutionary causes and consequences

Jovani

Rohwer

2016

Biological Reviews

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Fault bars are narrow malformations in feathers oriented almost perpendicular to the rachis where the feather vein and even the rachis may break. Breaks in the barbs and barbules result in small pieces of the feather vein being lost, while breaks in the rachis result in loss of the distal portion of the feather. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of 74 papers on fault bar formation in hopes of providing a clearer approach to their study. First, we review the evidence that the propensity to develop fault bars is modified by natural selection. Given that fault bars persist in the face of survival costs, we conclude that they must be an unfortunate consequence of some alternative adaptation that outweighs the fitness costs of fault bars. Second, we summarize evidence that the development of fault bars is triggered by psychological stress such as that of handling or predation attempts, and that they persist because the sudden contractions of the muscles in the feather follicle that control fright moults also causes the development of fault bars in growing feathers. Third, we review external and physiological (e.g. corticosterone) agents that may affect the likelihood that an acute stress will result in a growing feather exhibiting a fault bar. These modifying factors have often been treated as fundamental causes in the earlier literature on fault bars. Fourth, we then use this classification to propose a tentative model where fault bars of different severity (from light to severe) are the outcome of the interaction between the propensity to produce fault bars (which differs between species, individuals and feather follicles within individuals) and the intensity of the perturbation. This model helps to explain contradictory results in the literature, to identify gaps in our knowledge, and to suggest further studies. Lastly, we discuss ways in which better understanding of fault bars can inform us about other aspects of avian evolutionary ecology, such as the physiology of moult, the integration of moult into avian life cycles, and the strategies used to minimize stress during moult. Moreover, the study of fault bars may be relevant to understanding the aerodynamics of flight and the early evolution of flight.

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“…Intra-assay coefficient of variation was 6.87 %. CORTf was expressed as pg/mm of feather, as recommended in previous works (Bortolotti et al 2008(Bortolotti et al , 2009aJenni-Eiermann et al 2015) …”

Section: Feather Corticosterone Assaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parasites, mate attractiveness and female feather corticosterone levels in a socially monogamous bird

Mougeot

Lendvai

Martínez‐Padilla

et al. 2015

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Stress is ubiquitous in the life of animals and a key determinant of their well-being and fitness. By quantifying levels of feather corticosterone in growing feathers (CORTf), we measured integrated stress responses in a monogamous game bird, the red grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus. We investigated the effects of parasites and social mate choice on female CORTf levels during pairing, and tested the hypothesis that females with more parasites and paired with less attractive males have higher CORTf. We experimentally reduced nematode parasite abundance during pairing in females and investigated the effect of treatment on CORTf, while also considering the social mate's phenotype (male comb size, as a proxy of sexual attractiveness). The treatment was effective at contrasting parasite loads between control and dosed females, but had no apparent effect on CORTf. In experimental females, reinfection rate after a month positively correlated with CORTf. We found no evidence of assortative mating based on size, condition or ornament size, but females paired with more attractive males (displaying bigger combs) had lower CORTf during pairing. Females for which parasite load was reduced had lower CORTf than control females at all levels of male attractiveness. Social mate choice therefore appears to be an important determinant of female integrated stress responses, which may in turn modulate reinfection rate and parasitism risk. An influence of male attractiveness on female stress may be part of an adaptive response allowing females to adjust reproductive investment to their achieved social mate choice. Significance statementMate choice is often constrained by the availability of potential mates and not all females socially pair with their preferred partner. We show here that in females of a socially monogamous bird, corticosterone levels in feathers (indicative of integrated stress responses) increase with parasite infection levels but decrease with the attractiveness of the social mate. These results contribute to a better understanding of how females may adjust their reproductive investment according to their achieved mate choice.

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Corticosterone: effects on feather quality and deposition into feathers

Cited by 107 publications

References 28 publications

Traffic noise exposure affects telomere length in nestling house sparrows

Traffic noise exposure affects telomere length in nestling house sparrows

Fault bars in bird feathers: mechanisms, and ecological and evolutionary causes and consequences

Parasites, mate attractiveness and female feather corticosterone levels in a socially monogamous bird

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