COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: The role of glucocorticoids in mediating life history tradeoffs

合作研究：糖皮质激素在调节生活史权衡中的作用

• 批准号: 1146569
• 负责人: Mark Haussmann
• 金额: $ 9.5万
• 依托单位: Bucknell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-06-01 至 2017-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1146569&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: COLLABORATIVE; RESEARCH; role; glucocorticoids; mediating

All organisms must allocate limited resources towards competing functions. These functions can be grouped into two broad categories: reproduction and self-maintenance. Reproduction can increase fitness through production of offspring, whereas self-maintenance can increase fitness by improving survival to a time in the future when the individual can reproduce. One central factor influencing strategies of investment in reproduction or self-maintenance is "reproductive value", or the relative fitness benefit of current versus future reproduction. We currently do not understand the mechanisms allowing animals to adaptively allocate resources to reproduction and self-maintenance in the face of changing environmental conditions, resource availability, and reproductive value. Glucocorticoids, or stress hormones, are crucial for maintaining energetic balance, and might play an important role in mediating allocation to reproduction and self-maintenance. This project will test three hypotheses about the role of glucocorticoids in mediating resource allocation through experimental manipulations of glucocorticoids, reproductive effort, and blood parasites in free-ranging Tree Swallows. Results of this work will improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying variation in reproduction and survival and the evolution of strategies of resource allocation. This information is valuable because it will improve our understanding of evolution and physiology, and will also have implications for management of species of conservation concern. Glucocorticoid levels increase in response to habitat disturbance, and so, an understanding of how these hormones affect reproduction and survival can inform our understanding of dynamics of populations in disturbed habitat. Finally, because glucocorticoids are found in all vertebrates, including humans, the findings from this study might have important implications for human health.

所有生物都必须将有限的资源分配给竞争功能。这些功能可以分为两个广泛的类别：繁殖和自我维护。繁殖可以通过后代的产生来提高健身，而自我维护可以通过将生存提高到将来的时代来提高健身性。影响繁殖或自我维护投资策略的一个核心因素是“生殖价值”，或当前与未来繁殖的相对健身益处。目前，我们不理解允许动物在不断变化的环境条件，资源可用性和生殖价值的情况下适应资源来繁殖和自我维护的机制。糖皮质激素或应激激素对于保持能量平衡至关重要，并且可能在介导分配以繁殖和自我维护方面发挥重要作用。该项目将通过实验性操纵糖皮质激素，生殖努力和血液寄生虫在自由放养的树燕子中的实验操作来检验三个假设，以实现糖皮质激素在介导资源分配中的作用。这项工作的结果将提高我们对繁殖和生存差异的机制的理解以及资源分配策略的演变。这些信息是有价值的，因为它将提高我们对进化和生理学的理解，并且还将对管理关注物种的管理有影响。糖皮质激素水平随着栖息地干扰的响应而增加，因此，对这些激素如何影响繁殖和生存的理解可以告知我们对受干扰栖息地中种群动态的理解。最后，由于在包括人类在内的所有脊椎动物中都发现了糖皮质激素，因此这项研究的发现可能对人类健康具有重要意义。