Blount Jonathan D
Division of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Graham Kerr Building, Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.
Arch Biochem Biophys. 2004 Oct 1;430(1):10-5. doi: 10.1016/j.abb.2004.03.039.
Animals must allocate finite resources amongst competing demands. A suite of such trade-offs is thought to occur in the deployment of carotenoids, being widely responsible for sexual coloration and also important in antioxidant and immune defences. Experimental manipulation of dietary carotenoid availability is a useful approach for elucidating the mechanistic bases of carotenoid allocation trade-offs. Recent work using birds has shown that both sexual display and immune defences can be limited by carotenoid availability, providing support for the hypothesis that males allocating greater amounts of carotenoids to sexual coloration are advertising their superior health. Carotenoid availability has also been shown to limit egg-laying capacity in birds, although it remains to be seen whether carotenoid display in females advertises reproductive potential. More experiments are required to ascertain the importance of direct (material) and indirect (genetic) benefits accruing through choosing to mate with individuals that have greater carotenoid display.
动物必须在相互竞争的需求之间分配有限的资源。人们认为，在类胡萝卜素的分配过程中会出现一系列这样的权衡，类胡萝卜素广泛地决定了动物的性别色彩，同时在抗氧化和免疫防御中也起着重要作用。通过实验控制饮食中类胡萝卜素的可获取量，是阐明类胡萝卜素分配权衡机制基础的一种有效方法。最近对鸟类的研究表明，性别展示和免疫防御都可能受到类胡萝卜素可获取量的限制，这为以下假说提供了支持：雄性将更多类胡萝卜素用于性别色彩展示，是在宣传其更优的健康状况。研究还表明，类胡萝卜素的可获取量会限制鸟类的产卵能力，不过雌性的类胡萝卜素展示是否能表明其繁殖潜力，仍有待观察。需要进行更多实验，以确定与具有更丰富类胡萝卜素展示的个体交配所带来的直接（物质）和间接（基因）益处的重要性。
