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The Journal of Experimental Biology 206, 1887-1897 (2003)
doi: 10.1242/jeb.00372

Phenotypic flexibility of structure and function of the digestive system of Japanese quail

J. Matthias Starck^1,* and Gamal Hasan Abdel Rahmaan^1,2

¹ Institute of Zoology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Jena, Erbertstraße 1, D-07743 Jena, Germany
² Institute of Zoology, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt

^* Author for correspondence at present address: Department of Biology II, University of Munich, Luisenstrasse 14–16, D-80333 Munich, Germany (e-mail: starck{at}zi.biologie.uni-muenchen.de)

Accepted 13 March 2003

Organisms adjust their phenotype to fluctuating conditions of the environment and to changing internal demands. We report flexible responses of the gizzard and the small intestine of Japanese quail to a high-fibre diet. Switching from a standard diet to a high-fibre diet results in a highly significant increase in gizzard size, intestine length, mucosal surface, thickness of the intestinal muscular layer and vascularization of the mucosa. After diet switching, increased or decreased gizzard size results from changes in cell size, i.e. smooth muscle cell hypertrophy and hypotrophy, respectively. Increased cell proliferation is not the cause of increase in gizzard size. In the small intestine, however, we found elevated levels of cell proliferation after diet switching and conclude that increased capacity (upregulation) of the small intestine is based on increased rates of mitosis in the intestinal crypts. It is highly probable that elevated levels of cell proliferation in the crypts are balanced by elevated levels of cell extrusion at the tip of intestinal villi. The lipid contents of the liver were reduced, indicating that lipid stores in the liver were mobilized to fuel the flexible response of the gastrointestinal tract. During changes of organ size in response to changes in food composition, resting metabolic rate was not altered.

Key words: Diet switching, dietary fibre content, cell proliferation, resting metabolic rate, hypertrophy, hyperplasia, Japanese quail, Coturnix japonica, gizzard, small intestine, liver

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