Parental methyl-enhanced diet and in ovo corticosterone affect first generation Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) development, behaviour and stress response

Abstract

The role of maternal investment in avian offspring has considerable life history implications on production traits and therefore potential for the poultry industry. A first generation (G1) of Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) were bred from a 2 × 2 factorial design. Parents were fed either a control or methyl-enhanced (HiBET) diet, and their eggs were treated with a vehicle or corticosterone injection during day 5 of incubation. A subset of G1 birds were subjected to an open field trial (OFT) and capture-restraint stress protocol. Significant effects of HiBET diet were found on parental egg and liver weights, G1 hatch, liver and female reproductive tract weights, egg productivity, latency to leave the OFT central zone, male baseline 11-dehydrocorticosterone, and female androstenedione plasma concentrations. In ovo treatment significantly affected latency to return to the OFT, male baseline testosterone and androstenedione, and change in androstenedione plasma concentration. Diet by treatment interactions were significant for G1 liver weight and male baseline plasma concentrations of corticosterone. These novel findings suggest significant positive effects on reproduction, growth, precociousness, and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis function from enhanced methyl diets, and are important in understanding how in ovo stressors (representing maternal stress), affect the first offspring generation.

Marked oestrous cycle‐dependent regulation of rat arterial KV7.4 channels driven by GPER1

“…Steroid analysis was performed by targeted liquid chromatographytandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), following extraction of samples through automated supported liquid extraction (SLE) on an Extrahera liquid handling robot (Biotage, Uppsala, Sweden), adapted fromBoulton et al (2021). The method has an intra-and interassay coefficient variation between 4.9% and 7.2% for the five steroids measured: E2, aldosterone, testosterone, androstenedione and progesterone.…”

The Effect of In Ovo Administration of Rosemary Essential Oil on Hatchability, Relative Hatching Weight, and Embryo Mortality Rate in Japanese Quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

“…In particular, in ovo feeding has been reported for improving coturniculture production. In this respect, potential increases in growth-related endocrine activity of various compounds, including estradiol benzoate, estrogen, and corticosterone, during the quail’s embryo development have been well documented [ 8 , 24 , 25 ]. Furthermore, numerous studies have reported the usefulness of early feeding of the quail’s embryo with several exogenous molecules, such as vitamins, amino acids, and plant extracts [ 11 , 26 , 27 ].…”

In ovo corticosterone exposure does not influence yolk steroid hormone relative abundance or skeletal muscle development in the embryonic chicken

“…The phenotypic traits displayed by offspring as they transition into adulthood largely results from a complex interaction between genetic and maternal factors encountered during embryonic development ( Groothuis et al, 2019 ; Peixoto et al, 2020a , b ; Boulton et al, 2021 ). These maternal factors are a result of the environment encountered by a mother at the time of gestation, or in oviparous species, during egg formation.…”

“…These maternal factors are a result of the environment encountered by a mother at the time of gestation, or in oviparous species, during egg formation. In avian species, maternally derived differences in offspring phenotypes are likely mediated through hormonal or nutritional alterations to the composition of the egg during formation ( Henriksen et al, 2011b ; Angove and Forder, 2020 ; Boulton et al, 2021 ). A range of factors can influence the egg composition, including but not limited to; environmental ( Sheriff et al, 2017 ), nutritional status ( Gatford et al, 2018 ), and stress ( Gatford et al, 2018 ; Angove and Forder, 2020 ).…”

“…Maternal stress has been the focus of a number of studies in wild birds ( Love et al, 2013 ; Berghänel et al, 2017 ; Sheriff et al, 2017 ) and commercial poultry ( Henriksen et al, 2013 ; Bowling et al, 2018 ; Peixoto et al, 2020a , b ; Boulton et al, 2021 ). The effects of maternal stress on subsequent progeny performance however have not been extensively investigated, especially in production species.…”