Rafferty Anthony R, Scheelings T Franciscus, Foley Laura J, Johnstone Christopher P, Reina Richard D
School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia; 2Australian Wildlife Health Centre, Healesville Sanctuary, Healesville, Australia; 3Biogeochemistry Research Group, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Physiol Biochem Zool. 2014 May-Jun;87(3):411-9. doi: 10.1086/675310. Epub 2014 Mar 24.
Life-history theory predicts that a trade-off in the allocation of resources between different physiological systems exists because resources are finite. As a result, females investing heavily in reproduction may compromise their future health. We used hematology, serum biochemistry, mass, and morphometric measurements as indicators of physiological health state to investigate whether reproductive investment altered subsequent maternal health in three Australian freshwater turtles: the oblong turtle (Chelodina oblonga; n = 12), the Macquarie turtle (Emydura macquarii; n = 9), and the eastern long-necked turtle (Chelodina longicollis; n = 8). Maternal health was impaired in turtles that produced larger and heavier eggs and clutches. In C. oblonga and E. macquarii, increased reproductive investment generally resulted in negative changes to the hematology and serum biochemistry profile of maternal blood. Generally, increases in heterophil/lymphocyte ratio, aspartate transaminase, creatine kinase, calcium/phosphorus ratio, and albumin/globulin ratio were observed following reproduction, in addition to a decrease in glucose and total protein. These findings agree with the physiological constraint hypothesis and highlight the connection between life-history evolution and animal physiology by documenting, for the first time, how measures of physiological health state relate to reproductive investment in Australian freshwater turtles. Additionally, our findings suggest that body condition, a readily used morphological biomarker, is a poor predictor of health in turtles. Our results emphasize the need to investigate how maternal health is influenced by the reproductive process in different species.
生活史理论预测，由于资源有限，不同生理系统之间在资源分配上存在权衡。因此，在繁殖上投入大量资源的雌性可能会损害其未来的健康。我们使用血液学、血清生化、体重和形态测量作为生理健康状态的指标，来研究繁殖投入是否会改变三种澳大利亚淡水龟随后的母体健康状况，这三种龟分别是：长椭圆形龟（Chelodina oblonga；n = 12）、麦夸里龟（Emydura macquarii；n = 9）和东部长颈龟（Chelodina longicollis；n = 8）。产出更大、更重的卵和窝卵数的龟的母体健康受到了损害。在长椭圆形龟和麦夸里龟中，繁殖投入的增加通常会导致母体血液的血液学和血清生化指标出现负面变化。一般来说，繁殖后观察到嗜异性粒细胞/淋巴细胞比率、天冬氨酸转氨酶、肌酸激酶、钙/磷比率和白蛋白/球蛋白比率增加，同时葡萄糖和总蛋白减少。这些发现与生理限制假说一致，并通过首次记录生理健康状态指标与澳大利亚淡水龟繁殖投入之间的关系，突出了生活史进化与动物生理学之间的联系。此外，我们的发现表明，身体状况作为一种常用的形态生物标志物，并不是龟健康状况的良好预测指标。我们的结果强调了研究不同物种的繁殖过程如何影响母体健康的必要性。
