Schradin Carsten, Pillay Neville, Kondratyeva Anna, Yuen Chi-Hang, Schoepf Ivana, Krackow Sven
University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study (USIAS), Strasbourg, France CNRS, UMR7178, 67087 Strasbourg, France School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Biol Lett. 2015 May;11(5):20150208. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2015.0208.
Vertebrates obtain most of their energy through food, which they store mainly as body fat or glycogen, with glucose being the main energy source circulating in the blood. Basal blood glucose concentration (bBGC) is expected to remain in a narrow homeostatic range. We studied the extent to which bBGC in free-living African striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio) is influenced by ecological factors with a bearing on energy regulation, i.e. food availability, abiotic environmental variation and social tactic. Striped mice typically form extended family groups that huddle together at night, reducing energetic costs of thermoregulation, but solitary individuals also occur in the population. We analysed 2827 blood samples from 1008 individuals of seven different social categories that experienced considerable variation in food supply and abiotic condition. Blood samples were taken from mice in the morning after the overnight fast and before foraging. bBGC increased significantly with food plant abundance and decreased significantly with minimum daily ambient temperature. Solitary striped mice had significantly higher bBGC than group-living striped mice. Our results suggest that adaptive responses of bBGC occur and we found large natural variation, indicating that bBGC spans a far greater homeostatic range than previously thought.
脊椎动物通过食物获取大部分能量，它们主要将能量储存为体脂或糖原，葡萄糖是血液中循环的主要能量来源。基础血糖浓度（bBGC）预计会保持在一个狭窄的稳态范围内。我们研究了自由生活的非洲条纹小鼠（Rhabdomys pumilio）的bBGC受与能量调节相关的生态因素影响的程度，即食物可获得性、非生物环境变化和社会策略。条纹小鼠通常形成大家庭群体，夜间聚在一起，降低体温调节的能量成本，但种群中也存在独居个体。我们分析了来自七个不同社会类别的1008只个体的2827份血液样本，这些个体在食物供应和非生物条件方面经历了显著变化。血液样本是在小鼠禁食过夜后、觅食前的早晨采集的。bBGC随食物植物丰度显著增加，随每日最低环境温度显著降低。独居的条纹小鼠的bBGC显著高于群居的条纹小鼠。我们的结果表明bBGC会出现适应性反应，并且我们发现了很大的自然变异，这表明bBGC跨越的稳态范围比以前认为的要大得多。
