spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

First published online April 17, 2009
Journal of Experimental Biology 212, 1284-1293 (2009)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2009
doi: 10.1242/jeb.023911
This Article
Right arrow Summary Freely available
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Related articles in JEB
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Brzek, P.
Right arrow Articles by Karasov, W. H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Brzek, P.
Right arrow Articles by Karasov, W. H.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Developmental adjustments of house sparrow (Passer domesticus) nestlings to diet composition

Pawel Brzek1,*, Kevin Kohl1, Enrique Caviedes-Vidal2,3 and William H. Karasov1

1 Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin, 1630 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA
2 Laboratorio de Biología "Professor E. Caviedes Codelia", Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, and Departamento de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional de San Luis, 5700–San Luis, Argentina
3 IMIBIO-SL CONICET, 5700–San Luis, Argentina


Figure 1
View larger version (10K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

  		Fig. 1. Repeated measures over ages on house sparrow nestlings for (A) body mass, (B) tarsus length, and (C) wing length. Data are presented as means ± s.e.m. Circles, nestlings fed on the 0 starch diet (N=10); triangles, nestlings fed on +starch diet (N=12). There was a significant interaction between diet and age for body mass, reflecting a difference between diet groups that increased with age (see Results).

 

Figure 2
View larger version (9K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

  		Fig. 2. Cloacal temperatures of captive house sparrow nestlings vs age (in days) and diet. (A) Line graphs of cloacal temperatures initially when removed from the environmental chamber. (B) Line graphs of the change ({Delta}) in cloacal temperature after 15 min at 20°C. These are adjusted least squares mean values (±s.e.m.) from a statistical analysis which revealed that diet had a significant effect on {Delta}Tb at days 6 and 10 (asterisks).

 

Figure 3
View larger version (14K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

  		Fig. 3. Mass of internal organs of captive house sparrow nestlings as a function of age and diet. Circles, mean organ mass of nestlings fed on the 0 starch diet (N=32); triangles, mean organ mass of nestlings fed on the +starch diet (N=32). Age had a significant effect on all organs except gizzard, and there was a significant effect of diet group only on liver mass at day 12 (see Results and Table 3 for statistical analyses).

 

Figure 4
View larger version (21K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

  		Fig. 4. Intestinal enzyme activities of captive house sparrows as a function of age and diet. Maltase activity (top row) and aminopeptidase-N activity (bottom row) are expressed per g wet mass of tissue or per cm2 nominal area in three intestinal positions. Error bars are s.e.m. (N=7–8 individuals in each case). Diet had a significant effect only on maltase activity (see Results; Table 4).

 

Figure 5
View larger version (11K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

  		Fig. 5. Enzyme activities summed over the entire small intestine as a function of age and diet in house sparrow nestlings. Values are means ± s.e.m. (N=7–8 individuals in each case). Summed maltase activity was significantly higher in nestlings fed on the +starch diet (Table 4).

 

Figure 6
View larger version (7K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

  		Fig. 6. (A) Efficiency of assimilating radiolabeled starch, and (B) mean retention time of digesta as a function of age in captive house sparrows. Mean retention time declined with age, and there was a trend for higher assimilation efficiency in sparrows raised on the +starch diet (see Results).

 

Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?



© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2009