Chronological age, biological age, and individual variation in the stress response in the European starling: a follow-up study

The strength of the avian stress response declines with age. A recently published study of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) found that a marker of biological age predicted the strength of the stress response even in individuals of the same chronological age. Specifically, birds that had experie...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Annie Gott, Clare Andrews, Maria Larriva Hormigos, Karen Spencer, Melissa Bateson, Daniel Nettle
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: PeerJ Inc. 2018-10-01
Series:PeerJ
Subjects:
Online Access:https://peerj.com/articles/5842.pdf
id doaj-85015d2561cc401896d1f4263cc6e114
record_format Article
spelling doaj-85015d2561cc401896d1f4263cc6e1142020-11-24T20:45:30ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592018-10-016e584210.7717/peerj.5842Chronological age, biological age, and individual variation in the stress response in the European starling: a follow-up studyAnnie Gott0Clare Andrews1Maria Larriva Hormigos2Karen Spencer3Melissa Bateson4Daniel Nettle5Centre for Behaviour and Evolution & Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UKCentre for Behaviour and Evolution & Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UKSchool of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, UKSchool of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, UKCentre for Behaviour and Evolution & Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UKCentre for Behaviour and Evolution & Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UKThe strength of the avian stress response declines with age. A recently published study of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) found that a marker of biological age predicted the strength of the stress response even in individuals of the same chronological age. Specifically, birds that had experienced greater developmental telomere attrition (DTA) showed a lower peak corticosterone (CORT) response to an acute stressor, and more rapid recovery of CORT levels towards baseline. Here, we performed a follow-up study using the same capture-handling-restraint stressor in a separate cohort of starlings that had been subjected to a developmental manipulation of food availability and begging effort. We measured the CORT response at two different age points (4 and 18 months). Our data suggest a decline in the strength of the CORT response with chronological age: peak CORT was lower at the second age point, and there was relatively more reduction in CORT between 15 and 30 min. Individual consistency between the two age points was low, but there were modest familial effects on baseline and peak CORT. The manipulation of begging effort affected the stress response (specifically, the reduction in CORT between 15 and 30 min) in an age-dependent manner. However, we did not replicate the associations with DTA observed in the earlier study. We meta-analysed the data from the present and the earlier study combined, and found some support for the conclusions of the earlier paper.https://peerj.com/articles/5842.pdfBiological ageStress responseCorticosteroneDevelopmental programmingStarlingsTelomeres
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Annie Gott
Clare Andrews
Maria Larriva Hormigos
Karen Spencer
Melissa Bateson
Daniel Nettle
spellingShingle Annie Gott
Clare Andrews
Maria Larriva Hormigos
Karen Spencer
Melissa Bateson
Daniel Nettle
Chronological age, biological age, and individual variation in the stress response in the European starling: a follow-up study
PeerJ
Biological age
Stress response
Corticosterone
Developmental programming
Starlings
Telomeres
author_facet Annie Gott
Clare Andrews
Maria Larriva Hormigos
Karen Spencer
Melissa Bateson
Daniel Nettle
author_sort Annie Gott
title Chronological age, biological age, and individual variation in the stress response in the European starling: a follow-up study
title_short Chronological age, biological age, and individual variation in the stress response in the European starling: a follow-up study
title_full Chronological age, biological age, and individual variation in the stress response in the European starling: a follow-up study
title_fullStr Chronological age, biological age, and individual variation in the stress response in the European starling: a follow-up study
title_full_unstemmed Chronological age, biological age, and individual variation in the stress response in the European starling: a follow-up study
title_sort chronological age, biological age, and individual variation in the stress response in the european starling: a follow-up study
publisher PeerJ Inc.
series PeerJ
issn 2167-8359
publishDate 2018-10-01
description The strength of the avian stress response declines with age. A recently published study of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) found that a marker of biological age predicted the strength of the stress response even in individuals of the same chronological age. Specifically, birds that had experienced greater developmental telomere attrition (DTA) showed a lower peak corticosterone (CORT) response to an acute stressor, and more rapid recovery of CORT levels towards baseline. Here, we performed a follow-up study using the same capture-handling-restraint stressor in a separate cohort of starlings that had been subjected to a developmental manipulation of food availability and begging effort. We measured the CORT response at two different age points (4 and 18 months). Our data suggest a decline in the strength of the CORT response with chronological age: peak CORT was lower at the second age point, and there was relatively more reduction in CORT between 15 and 30 min. Individual consistency between the two age points was low, but there were modest familial effects on baseline and peak CORT. The manipulation of begging effort affected the stress response (specifically, the reduction in CORT between 15 and 30 min) in an age-dependent manner. However, we did not replicate the associations with DTA observed in the earlier study. We meta-analysed the data from the present and the earlier study combined, and found some support for the conclusions of the earlier paper.
topic Biological age
Stress response
Corticosterone
Developmental programming
Starlings
Telomeres
url https://peerj.com/articles/5842.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT anniegott chronologicalagebiologicalageandindividualvariationinthestressresponseintheeuropeanstarlingafollowupstudy
AT clareandrews chronologicalagebiologicalageandindividualvariationinthestressresponseintheeuropeanstarlingafollowupstudy
AT marialarrivahormigos chronologicalagebiologicalageandindividualvariationinthestressresponseintheeuropeanstarlingafollowupstudy
AT karenspencer chronologicalagebiologicalageandindividualvariationinthestressresponseintheeuropeanstarlingafollowupstudy
AT melissabateson chronologicalagebiologicalageandindividualvariationinthestressresponseintheeuropeanstarlingafollowupstudy
AT danielnettle chronologicalagebiologicalageandindividualvariationinthestressresponseintheeuropeanstarlingafollowupstudy
_version_ 1716814562719694848