Environment shapes the digestive performance in a Mediterranean lizard

Karameta, Emmanouela; Gourgouliani, Natalia; Kouvari-Gaglia, Danai; Litsi-Mizan, Victoria; Halle, Snir; Meiri, Shai; Sfenthourakis, Spyros; Pafilis, Panayiotis

doi:10.1093/biolinnean/blx034

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Although overall assimilation efficiency has often been found to be temperature independent (Van Damme et al, 1991;Ji et al, 1996;Du et al, 2000;Chen et al, 2003;Zhang and Ji, 2004;McConnachie and Alexander, 2004), nutrient-specific assimilation can either increase or decrease with temperature (Pafilis et al, 2007;Karameta et al, 2017). The recovery of 13 C in faeces of lizards that consumed crickets spiked with 13 C-leucine diminished with temperature, whereas it remained unaltered in lizards that received 13 C-palmiticacid-spiked crickets.…”

Section: Nutrient Assimilationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental temperature alters the overall digestive energetics and differentially affects dietary protein and lipid use in a lizard

Plasman

McCue²,

Reynoso

et al. 2019

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Processing food (e.g. ingestion, digestion, assimilation) requires energy referred to as specific dynamic action (SDA) and is at least partially fuelled by oxidation of the nutrients (e.g. proteins and lipids) within the recently ingested meal. In ectotherms, environmental temperature can affect the magnitude and/or duration of the SDA, but is likely to also alter the mixture of nutrients that are oxidized to cover these costs. Here, we examined metabolic rate, gut passage time, assimilation efficiency and fuel use in the lizard Agama atra digesting cricket meals at three ecologically relevant temperatures (20, 25 and 32°C). Crickets were isotopically enriched with 13 C-leucine or 13 C-palmitic-acid tracers to distinguish between protein and lipid oxidation, respectively. Our results show that higher temperatures increased the magnitude of the SDA peak (by 318% between 32 and 20°C) and gut passage rate (63%), and decreased the duration of the SDA response (by 20% for males and 48% for females). Peak rate of dietary protein oxidation occurred sooner than peak lipid oxidation at all temperatures (70, 60 and 31 h earlier for 20, 25 and 32°C, respectively). Assimilation efficiency of proteins, but not lipids, was positively related to temperature. Interestingly, the SDA response exhibited a notable circadian rhythm. These results show that temperature has a pronounced effect on digestive energetics in A. atra, and that this effect differs between nutrient classes. Variation in environmental temperatures may thus alter the energy budget and nutrient reserves of these animals.

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Section: Nutrient Assimilationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental temperature alters the overall digestive energetics and differentially affects dietary protein and lipid use in a lizard

Plasman

McCue²,

Reynoso

et al. 2019

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…Digestion, a crucial function for nutrient absorption, rules energy acquisition (Karasov et al, 2011). There are many parameters affecting the digestive performance in lizards and, as mentioned above, gut passage time (GPT) is one of them (Pafilis et al, 2016;Sagonas et al, 2017;Karameta et al, 2017b). The latter may be affected by many intrinsic and extrinsic factors such as temperature, length of the gastrointestinal tract, body size and age (Van Damme et al, 1991, Du et al, 2000Pafilis et al, 2016;Sanabria et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of weight and prey species on gut passage time in an endemic gecko Quedenfeldtia moerens (Chabanaud, 1916) from Morocco

et al. 2022

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Gut passage time (GPT), a key factor in digestive procedure, is of pivotal importance for digestion. Several parameters may affect GPT, such as temperature, length of gastrointestinal tract and body size. Here, we examine the influence of prey weight and prey species on GPT in the endemic diurnal gecko Quedenfeldtia moerens, from the Anti-Atlas Mountains in central Morocco. We used two prey species, house crickets (Acheta domesticus, AD) and mealworms (Tenebrio molitor, TM). Lizards were fed with the larval stage of TM and nymphs of AD. The influence of prey weight and prey species was tested at a constant temperature. We used three weight classes of each prey species to test the influence of prey weight on GPT. Our results showed that prey species affected GPT in a distinct way: mealworms induced a longer gut passage time compared to house crickets. Moreover, GPT increased with the increasing weight of prey for both prey species. Our finding demonstrates that the effect of prey species and prey weight affect digestion and thus should be better clarified in future studies.

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“…Stable isotope analysis of tooth and skin suggested that mass-specific protein consumption declines during ontogeny in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncates, (Knoff et al, 2008)). Similarly, in turtles (Trachemys scripta, (Bouchard and Bjorndal, 2006)), lizards (Stellagama stellio, (Karameta et al, 2017)), and sturgeons (Acipenser persicus, (Babaei et al, 2011)), food preference, digestive efficiency, and digestive enzymatic activities indicate decreasing mass-specific protein assimilation and need as ontogeny progresses. Changes in milk composition through ontogeny also suggest that offspring nutritional requirements shift from protein-biased to energy (lipid + carbohydrate)-biased with age.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body mass and growth rates predict protein intake across animals

Talal

Harrison

Farington

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Organisms require dietary macronutrients in specific ratios to maximize performance, and variation in macronutrient requirements plays a central role in niche determination. Although it is well-recognized that development and body size can have strong and predictable effects on many aspects of organismal function, we lack a predictive understanding of ontogenetic or scaling effects on macronutrient intake. We determined protein and carbohydrate intake throughout development on lab populations of locusts and tested whether lab responses can predict results for field populations. Self-selected protein:carbohydrate targets declined dramatically through ontogeny, due primarily to declines in mass-specific protein consumption rates which were highly correlated with declines in specific growth rates. Importantly, lab results for protein consumption rates predicted results for field-collected locusts. However, field locusts consumed nearly double the carbohydrate, likely due to higher activity and metabolic rates. Combining our results with the available data for animals, both across species and during ontogeny, protein consumption scaled predictably and hypometrically, demonstrating a new scaling rule key for understanding nutritional ecology.

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Environment shapes the digestive performance in a Mediterranean lizard

Cited by 8 publications

References 67 publications

Environmental temperature alters the overall digestive energetics and differentially affects dietary protein and lipid use in a lizard

Environmental temperature alters the overall digestive energetics and differentially affects dietary protein and lipid use in a lizard

The effect of weight and prey species on gut passage time in an endemic gecko Quedenfeldtia moerens (Chabanaud, 1916) from Morocco

Body mass and growth rates predict protein intake across animals

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