scholarly journals Implicating a Temperature-Dependent Clock in the Regulation of Torpor Bout Duration in Classic Hibernation

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 626-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Malan ◽  
Dominique Ciocca ◽  
Etienne Challet ◽  
Paul Pévet

Syrian hamsters may present 2 types of torpor when exposed to ambient temperatures in the winter season, from 8°C to 22°C (short photoperiod). The first is daily torpor, which is controlled by the master circadian clock of the body, located in the SCN. In this paper, we show that daily torpor bout duration is unchanged over the 8°C to 22°C temperature range, as predicted from the thermal compensation of circadian clocks. These findings contrast with the second type of torpor: multi-day torpor or classic hibernation. In multi-day torpor, bout duration increases as temperature decreases, following Arrhenius thermodynamics. We found no evidence of hysteresis from metabolic inhibition and the process was thus reversible. As a confirmation, at any temperature, the arousal from multi-day torpor occurred at about the same subjective time given by this temperature-dependent clock. The temperature-dependent clock controls the reduced torpor metabolic rate while providing a reversible recovery of circadian synchronization on return to euthermy.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Shankar ◽  
RJ Schroeder ◽  
SM Wethington ◽  
CH Graham ◽  
DR Powers

ABSTRACTTorpor is an important energy saving strategy in small endotherms, but it has been insufficiently studied in natural field conditions. Building on what we know from laboratory studies, we compared torpor use across hummingbird species and different natural temperature regimes to explore predominant hypotheses about torpor use and evaluate the possible effects of environmental variation on energy management.We found that the probability of an individual entering torpor was correlated with mass and unrelated to nighttime temperature, and that hummingbirds at both warm tropical and cooler temperate sites used torpor.Energy savings in torpor were maximized as ambient temperatures approached a species’ minimum body temperature consistent with laboratory studies; energy savings ranged between 65-92% of energy per hour in torpor compared to normothermy.However, variation in total nighttime energy expenditure was more significantly influenced by torpor bout duration than by the variation in energy savings in torpor.Our results show that a small endotherm’s nighttime energy management in its natural habitat is more affected by torpor bout duration, which is linked to photoperiod, than by temperature. This result suggests that in their natural environments, hummingbirds are able to save energy in torpor across a range nighttime temperature, indicating that they may have sufficient physiological flexibility to tolerate climatic variation.


1999 ◽  
Vol 202 (21) ◽  
pp. 3021-3028 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.C. Hoffman ◽  
G.E. Walsberg

We tested the hypothesis that birds can rapidly change the conductance of water vapor at the skin surface in response to a changing need for evaporative heat loss. Mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) were placed in a two-compartment chamber separating the head from the rest of the body. The rate of cutaneous evaporation was measured in response to dry ventilatory inflow at three ambient temperatures and in response to vapor-saturated ventilatory inflow at two ambient temperatures. At 35 degrees C, cutaneous evaporation increased by 72 % when evaporative water loss from the mouth was prevented, but no increase was observed at 45 degrees C. For both dry and vapor-saturated treatments, cutaneous evaporation increased significantly with increased ambient temperature. Changes in skin temperature made only a minor contribution to any observed increase in cutaneous evaporation. This indicates that Z. macroura can effect rapid adjustment of evaporative conductance at the skin in response to acute change in thermoregulatory demand.


Author(s):  
Giuliana Hessler ◽  
Stephan Michael Portheine ◽  
Eva-Maria Gerlach ◽  
Tim Lienemann ◽  
Gerald Koch ◽  
...  

Abstract Plants possess a well-balanced immune system that is required for defense against pathogen infections. In autoimmune mutants or necrotic crosses, an intrinsic temperature-dependent imbalance leads to constitutive immune activation, resulting in severe damage or even death of plants. Recently, cell wall depositions were described as one of the symptoms following induction of the autoimmune phenotype in Arabidopsis saul1-1 mutants. However, the regulation and function of these depositions remained unclear. Here, we show that cell wall depositions, containing lignin and callose, were a common autoimmune feature and were deposited in proportion to the severity of the autoimmune phenotype at reduced ambient temperatures. When plants were exposed to reduced temperature for periods insufficient to induce an autoimmune phenotype, the cell wall depositions were not present. After low temperature intervals, sufficient to induce autoimmune responses, cell wall depositions correlated with a point of no return in saul1-1 autoimmunity. Although cell wall depositions were largely abolished in saul1-1 pmr4-1 double mutants lacking SAUL1 and the callose synthase gene GSL5/PMR4, their phenotype remained unchanged compared to that of the saul1-1 single mutant. Our data showed that cell wall depositions generally occur in autoimmunity, but appear not to be the cause of autoimmune phenotypes.


1957 ◽  
Vol 188 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Fregly ◽  
N. B. Marshall ◽  
J. Mayer

Goldthioglucose-obese mice cannot adjust their food intake to meet the increased energy requirements due to cold. At all ambient temperatures above 15°C the spontaneous running activity of these animals is less than that observed for nonobese controls. Activity of obese mice is maximal at 19°C and minimal at 15°C or lower. Body weights decrease during exposure to cold. In contrast to that of obese mice, running activity of nonobese controls is maximal at an ambient temperature of 25°C but nearly ceases at 15°C or lower. The food intake of these animals increases in the cold and remains elevated even at temperatures at which activity decreases. The body weight of nonobese controls is either maintained constant or increases during exposure to cold air.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Leonov

Thermal properties of humans were studied in the case where a small-size energy scavenger is placed on the body. In such a case, the human being serves as a heat source for the thermopile of the scavenger, but the latter serves as a thermally insulating object. As a result, the body properties, namely, the skin temperature, heat flow, and thermal resistance locally change. This is the result of redirection of heat flow inside the body to colder zones because of thermal insulation provided by the scavenger. Increased thermal resistance of human body, in turn, affects the design of the scavenger. The analysis of such scavenger performed for ambient temperatures of 0°C to 25°C shows that it could reach competitive performance characteristics and replace batteries in low-power wearable electronics. A simulated power of up to 60 μW/cm2 at 0°C has been validated by using wearable thermoelectric modules.


2015 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra M. Leslie ◽  
Mathew Stewart ◽  
Elizabeth Price ◽  
Adam J. Munn

Daily torpor, a short-term reduction in body temperature and metabolism, is an energy-saving strategy that has been interpreted as an adaptation to unpredictable resource availability. However, the effect of food-supply variability on torpor, separately from consistent food restriction, remains largely unexamined. In this study, we investigated the effect of unpredictable food availability on torpor in stripe-faced dunnarts (Sminthopsis macroura). After a control period of ad libitum feeding, dunnarts were offered 65% of their average daily ad libitum intake over 31 days, either as a constant restriction (i.e. as equal amount of food offered each day) or as an unpredictable schedule of feed offered, varied daily as 0%, 30%, 60%, 100% or 130% of ad libitum. Both feeding groups had increased torpor-bout occurrences (as a proportion of all dunnarts on a given day) and torpor-bout frequency (average number of bouts each day) when on a restricted diet compared with ad libitum feeding, but torpor frequency did not differ between the consistently restricted and unpredictably restricted groups. Most importantly, torpor occurrence and daily bout frequency by the unpredictably restricted group appeared to change in direct association with the amount of food offered on each day; torpor frequency was higher on days of low food availability. Our data do not support the interpretation that torpor is a response to unpredictable food availability per se, but rather that torpor allowed a rapid adjustment of energy expenditure to manage daily fluctuations in food availability.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (11) ◽  
pp. 2765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jihwan Myung ◽  
Mei-Yi Wu ◽  
Chun-Ya Lee ◽  
Amalia Ridla Rahim ◽  
Vuong Hung Truong ◽  
...  

The kidney harbors one of the strongest circadian clocks in the body. Kidney failure has long been known to cause circadian sleep disturbances. Using an adenine-induced model of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in mice, we probe the possibility that such sleep disturbances originate from aberrant circadian rhythms in kidney. Under the CKD condition, mice developed unstable behavioral circadian rhythms. When observed in isolation in vitro, the pacing of the master clock, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), remained uncompromised, while the kidney clock became a less robust circadian oscillator with a longer period. We find this analogous to the silencing of a strong slave clock in the brain, the choroid plexus, which alters the pacing of the SCN. We propose that the kidney also contributes to overall circadian timekeeping at the whole-body level, through bottom-up feedback in the hierarchical structure of the mammalian circadian clocks.


2003 ◽  
Vol 51 (6) ◽  
pp. 603 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. P. Ikonomopoulou ◽  
R. W. Rose

We investigated the metabolic rate, thermoneutral zone and thermal conductance of the eastern barred bandicoot in Tasmania. Five adult eastern barred bandicoots (two males, three non-reproductive females) were tested at temperatures of 3, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40°C. The thermoneutral zone was calculated from oxygen consumption and body temperature, measured during the daytime: their normal resting phase. It was found that the thermoneutral zone lies between 25°C and 30°C, with a minimum metabolic rate of 0.51 mL g–1 h–1 and body temperature of 35.8°C. At cooler ambient temperatures (3–20°C) the body temperature decreased to approximately 34.0°C while the metabolic rate increased from 0.7 to 1.3 mL g–1�h–1. At high temperatures (35°C and 40°C) both body temperature (36.9–38.7°C) and metabolic rate (1.0–1.5 mL g–1 h–1) rose. Thermal conductance was low below an ambient temperature of 30°C but increased significantly at higher temperatures. The low thermal conductance (due, in part, to good insulation, a reduced body temperature at lower ambient temperatures, combined with a relatively high metabolic rate) suggests that this species is well adapted to cooler environments but it could not thermoregulate easily at temperatures above 30°C.


2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1822) ◽  
pp. 20152387 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Kurnath ◽  
N. D. Merz ◽  
M. D. Dearing

Growing evidence suggests that plant secondary compounds (PSCs) ingested by mammals become more toxic at elevated ambient temperatures, a phenomenon known as temperature-dependent toxicity. We investigated temperature-dependent toxicity in the desert woodrat ( Neotoma lepida ), a herbivorous rodent that naturally encounters PSCs in creosote bush ( Larrea tridentata ), which is a major component of its diet. First, we determined the maximum dose of creosote resin ingested by woodrats at warm (28–29°C) or cool (21–22°C) temperatures. Second, we controlled the daily dose of creosote resin ingested at warm, cool and room (25°C) temperatures, and measured persistence in feeding trials. At the warm temperature, woodrats ingested significantly less creosote resin; their maximum dose was two-thirds that of animals at the cool temperature. Moreover, woodrats at warm and room temperatures could not persist on the same dose of creosote resin as woodrats at the cool temperature. Our findings demonstrate that warmer temperatures reduce PSC intake and tolerance in herbivorous rodents, highlighting the potentially adverse consequences of temperature-dependent toxicity. These results will advance the field of herbivore ecology and may hone predictions of mammalian responses to climate change.


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