reproduction
- Timing manipulations reveal the lack of a causal link across timing of annual-cycle stages in a long-distance migrant
Summary: Experimental manipulations show that pied flycatchers do not adjust the timing of their moult and migration to the termination of breeding.
- Understanding diversity in oxidative status and oxidative stress: the opportunities and challenges ahead
Summary: This Commentary highlights the distinction between biochemical and biological definitions of oxidative stress, discusses issues to consider when designing experiments to investigate oxidative stress, and proposes the ‘redox signalling hypothesis’ of life history.
- The quantity–quality trade-off: differential effects of daily food availability times on reproductive performance and offspring quality in diurnal zebra finches
Summary: Absence of food in the morning compromises reproductive fecundity but not quality of offspring, whereas food absence in the evening compromises quality (skeletal growth and overall size) of offspring but not reproductive fecundity in continuously breeding diurnal zebra finches.
- Effects of temperature on the timing of breeding and molt transitions in house finches
Summary: Experimental manipulations in male house finches indicate that elevated temperature has no direct effect on the timing of reproductive preparations, but does influence the transition from breeding to molt.
- The effect of chronic and acute stressors, and their interaction, on testes function: an experimental test during testicular recrudescence
Summary: Exposure to an acute stressor downregulated testosterone production, but this effect was absent in chronically disturbed birds. The acute stressor had a strong effect on the testicular transcriptome, whereas chronic disturbance had a negligible effect.
- High activity before breeding improves reproductive performance by enhancing mitochondrial function and biogenesis
Summary: Female mice that had access to a running wheel before mating had higher mitochondria respiration, biogenesis and reproductive outputs, indicating a positive carry-over effect to reproduction.
- SERT gene polymorphisms are associated with risk-taking behaviour and breeding parameters in wild great tits
Summary: Genetic variability of the serotonin transporter gene plays an important role in shaping individual decision-making that affects fitness in a wild population of great tits.
- Effects of a physical and energetic challenge on male California mice (Peromyscus californicus): modulation by reproductive condition
Summary: In the biparental California mouse, an environmental challenge affects metabolically important physiological, morphological and behavioral measures in males, but these effects do not differ between non-reproductive males and fathers.
- Early gametogenesis in the Pacific oyster: new insights using stem cell and mitotic markers
Summary: Alkaline phosphatase activity and immunochemistry reveal that oyster germline cells are located in the gonad duct outer edge during the resting period and proliferate very early during the next sexual cycle.
- Juvenile hormone, but not nutrition or social cues, affects reproductive maturation in solitary alkali bees (Nomia melanderi)
Summary: Understanding reproductive physiology in solitary bees provides insight regarding the evolution of social insect castes. Reproductive maturity in alkali bees is influenced by endocrine, but not nutritional or social treatments.