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Effects of parental effort on blood stress protein HSP60 and immunoglobulins in female blue tits: a brood size manipulation experiment
Author(s) -
MERINO SANTIAGO,
MORENO JUAN,
TOMÁS GUSTAVO,
MARTÍNEZ JAVIER,
MORALES JUDITH,
MARTÍNEZDE LA PUENTE JOSUÉ,
OSORNO JOSÉ LUIS
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of animal ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.134
H-Index - 157
eISSN - 1365-2656
pISSN - 0021-8790
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2006.01135.x
Subject(s) - cyanistes , brood , biology , antibody , offspring , reproduction , zoology , population , ecology , immunology , demography , parus , genetics , pregnancy , sociology
Summary1 Physiological stress in animals may impose a limit for investment in current reproduction in the wild. A brood manipulation experiment was conducted in a population of blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus to study the effect of parental effort on changes in two types of proteins related with stress: the blood stress protein HSP60 and the plasma immunoglobulins. 2 Levels of HSP60 were reduced across the experiment for females attending reduced broods, and females attending enlarged broods experienced a reduction of immunoglobulin levels. Moreover, the overall changes in the levels of both proteins were positively related. 3 By controlling for the change in immunoglobulin levels we found an increase in HSP60 for females in the enlarged treatment, presumably to offset deleterious effects derived from increased effort. 4 Maternal effort was able to partially compensate for the effect of treatment as nestlings did not differ in mass and levels of immunoglobulins and HSP60 among treatments. 5 Physiological stress as reflected in stress and immunoglobulin proteins may limit maternal effort in breeding blue tits.