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...
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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 |
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