Costantini David, Greives Timothy J, Hau Michaela, Partecke Jesko
Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium Institute for Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
North Dakota State University, Department of Biological Sciences, 1340 Bolley Drive, Fargo, ND 58202, USA.
J Exp Biol. 2014 Sep 1;217(Pt 17):2994-7. doi: 10.1242/jeb.106450. Epub 2014 Jun 19.
Cities may expose wild animals to new types of selection pressures, potentially leading to differentiation among urban and rural populations. One cellular mechanism likely important in determining the viability of vertebrate populations is resistance to oxidative stress, as tissue degradation resulting from oxidative stress may decrease reproductive performance and survival. We hypothesized that city-thriving Eurasian blackbirds (Turdus merula) would be more resistant to oxidative stress when exposed to stressful conditions than rural conspecifics. Hand-raised city and rural blackbirds kept under common garden conditions indeed differed in blood oxidative status when exposed to chronic stress: city birds had lower oxidative damage during stressful conditions compared with rural birds, but also tended to generally maintain lower levels of non-enzymatic and enzymatic antioxidants than rural birds. These findings show that individuals from urban and rural areas differ intrinsically in their blood oxidative status physiology, possibly as an adaptation to city life.
城市可能会使野生动物面临新型选择压力，这有可能导致城市和农村种群之间产生分化。在决定脊椎动物种群生存能力方面，一种可能很重要的细胞机制是对氧化应激的抗性，因为氧化应激导致的组织退化可能会降低繁殖能力和存活率。我们推测，在面临压力条件时，在城市中繁衍生息的欧亚黑鹂比农村的同类更能抵抗氧化应激。在相同园圃条件下饲养的人工育雏的城市和农村黑鹂，在面临慢性应激时，其血液氧化状态确实存在差异：与农村黑鹂相比，城市黑鹂在应激条件下的氧化损伤更低，但它们的非酶类和酶类抗氧化剂水平总体上也往往比农村黑鹂更低。这些发现表明，城市和农村地区的个体在血液氧化状态生理方面存在内在差异，这可能是对城市生活的一种适应。
