scholarly journals Early life conditions that impact song learning in male zebra finches also impact neural and behavioral responses to song in females

2018 ◽  
Vol 78 (8) ◽  
pp. 785-798 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kendra B. Sewall ◽  
Rindy C. Anderson ◽  
Jill A. Soha ◽  
Susan Peters ◽  
Stephen Nowicki
Keyword(s):  
Early Life ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
Song Learning ◽  
Zebra Finches ◽  
Life Conditions ◽  
Early Life Conditions

Costs of compensation: effect of early life conditions and reproduction on flight performance in zebra finches

Oecologia ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 167 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Criscuolo ◽  
Pat Monaghan ◽  
Audrey Proust ◽  
Jana Škorpilová ◽  
John Laurie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Life ◽  
Compensation Effect ◽  
Flight Performance ◽  
Zebra Finches ◽  
Life Conditions ◽  
Early Life Conditions

scholarly journals Associations between DNA methylation and telomere length during early life: insight from wild zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Sheldon ◽  
Riccardo Ton ◽  
Winnie Boner ◽  
Pat Monaghan ◽  
Shirley Raveh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Growth Rate ◽  
Telomere Length ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Zebra Finches ◽  
Ecological Context ◽  
Life Conditions ◽  
Early Life Conditions ◽  
Length Changes

Telomere length and DNA methylation (DNAm) are two promising biomarkers of biological age. Environmental factors and life history traits are known to affect variation in both these biomarkers, especially during early life, yet surprisingly little is known about their reciprocal association. Here, we present the first study on a natural population to explore how variation in DNAm, growth rate and early-life conditions are associated with telomere length changes during development. We tested these associations by collecting data from wild, nestling zebra finches in the Australian desert. We found that increases in the level of DNAm were negatively correlated with telomere length changes across early life. We also confirm previously documented effects of post hatch growth rate and clutch size on telomere length in a natural ecological context for a species that has been extensively studied in the laboratory. However, we did not detect any effect of ambient temperature during developmental on telomere dynamics. We also found that the absolute telomere length of wild zebra finches, measured using the in-gel TRF method, was similar to that of captive birds. Our findings highlight exciting new opportunities to link and disentangle potential relationships between environmental, epigenetic and telomere length dynamics during early life.

scholarly journals Offspring performance is well buffered against stress experienced by ancestors

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yifan Pei ◽  
Wolfgang Forstmeier ◽  
Bart Kempenaers
Keyword(s):  
Observational Data ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Zebra Finches ◽  
Direct Effects ◽  
Transgenerational Effects ◽  
Offspring Performance ◽  
Life Conditions ◽  
Early Life Conditions

AbstractEvolution should render individuals resistant to stress and particularly to stress experienced by ancestors. However, many studies report negative effects of stress experienced by one generation on the performance of subsequent generations. To assess the strength of such transgenerational effects we used a strategy aimed at overcoming the problem of type I errors when testing multiple proxies of stress in multiple ancestors against multiple offspring performance traits, and applied it to a large observational data set on captive zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). We combined clear one-tailed hypotheses with steps of validation, meta-analytic summary of mean effect sizes, and independent confirmatory testing. With this approach we assess to what extent offspring performance in adulthood depends on (1) direct effects of own experiences during early development, (2) indirect condition-transfer effects of the early environment experienced by the parents and the grandparents, and (3) beneficial effects of a match between the environments experienced by the offspring and by its parents. Our study shows that drastic differences in early growth conditions (nestling body mass 8 days after hatching varied 7-fold between 1.7 and 12.4 gram) had only moderate direct effects on adult morphology (95%CI: r=0.19-0.27) and small direct effects on fitness traits (r=0.02-0.12). In contrast, we found no indirect effects of parental or grandparental condition (r=-0.017-0.002; meta-analytic summary of 138 effect sizes), and mixed evidence for small benefits of matching environments, as the latter was not robust to confirmatory testing in independent data sets. This study shows that evolution has led to a remarkable robustness of zebra finches against undernourishment and that transgenerational effects are absent.Author SummaryHow the early life conditions of your ancestors might influence your own life, an aspect of epigenetic inheritance, has become a popular topic among evolutionary biologists and has sparked much interest by the general public. Many theoretical and empirical studies have addressed this question, leading to theories of adaptive programming and condition transfer and ideas of epigenetic or genetic organization. Despite the popularity of this topic, however, there is a lack of a standard framework to guide empirical studies, which are at risk of over-interpreting the most significant effects that might emerge by chance alone when conducting a large number of tests. In this study, we used long-term observational data on multiple morphological and life-history traits of hundreds of male and female zebra finches with information on the early life conditions of both the focal birds and their parents and grandparents. This allows us to comprehensively quantify the magnitude of direct and transgenerational effects of early developmental conditions. Our study (1) proposes a standardized statistical framework for future investigations, (2) summarizes the average effect size (in zebra finches) and indicates the sample sizes needed to pick up such an effect, and (3) provides a counter statement to a growing faith in the ubiquity of transgenerational effects despite their limited evolutionary or mechanistic plausibility.

scholarly journals Effects of early-life conditions on innate immune function in adult zebra finches

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merijn M. G. Driessen ◽  
Maaike A. Versteegh ◽  
Yoran H. Gerritsma ◽  
B. Irene Tieleman ◽  
Ido Pen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immune Function ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Brood Size ◽  
Innate Immune ◽  
Zebra Finches ◽  
Bacterial Killing ◽  
Innate Immune Function ◽  
Life Conditions ◽  
Early Life Conditions ◽  
Developmental Conditions

Early life conditions can impact individuals for life, with harsh developmental conditions resulting in lower fitness, but the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. We hypothesised that immune function may be part of the underlying mechanism, when harsh developmental conditions result in less effective immune function. We tested this hypothesis by comparing innate immune function between zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) in adulthood (n=230; age 108 – 749 days) that were reared in either small or large broods. We used this experimental background to follow up our earlier finding that finches reared in large broods have a shorter lifespan. To render a broad overview of innate immune function, we used an array of six measures: bacterial killing capacity, haemagglutination, haemolysis, haptoglobin, nitric oxide, and ovotransferrin. We found no convincing evidence for effects of natal brood size on any of the six measures of innate immune function. This raised the question whether the origin of variation in immune function was genetic, and we therefore estimated heritabilities using animal models. However, we found heritability estimates to be low (range 0.04 – 0.11) for all measured immune variables, suggesting variation in innate immune function can largely be attributed to environmental effects independent of early-life conditions as modified by natal brood size.

Early life nutritional stress affects song learning but not underlying neural circuitry in zebra finches.

2020 ◽  
Vol 134 (3) ◽  
pp. 222-232
Author(s):  
Khulganaa Buyannemekh ◽  
Jessica B. Zito ◽  
Michelle L. Tomaszycki
Keyword(s):  
Early Life ◽  
Nutritional Stress ◽  
Neural Circuitry ◽  
Song Learning ◽  
Zebra Finches

scholarly journals Early‐life conditions determine the between‐individual heterogeneity in plasticity of calving date in reindeer

2019 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 370-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amélie Paoli ◽  
Robert B. Weladji ◽  
Øystein Holand ◽  
Jouko Kumpula
Keyword(s):  
Early Life ◽  
Individual Heterogeneity ◽  
Life Conditions ◽  
Early Life Conditions
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