Novel insights into relationships between egg corticosterone and timing of breeding revealed by LC-MS/MS
- Author
- Tom Rosendahl Larsen, Graham D Fairhurst, Siegrid De Baere (UGent) , Siska Croubels (UGent) , Wendt Müller, Liesbeth De Neve (UGent) and Luc Lens (UGent)
- Organization
- Abstract
- Inter- and intra-clutch variation in egg corticosterone (CORT), the major glucocorticoid in birds, may provide insights into how maternal stress levels vary with the timing of breeding and with laying order. Common analytical methods (e.g. immunoassays), however, suffer from cross-reaction with other steroids, leading to potential overestimation of CORT concentrations which can obscure true hormone-environment relationships and complicate among-study comparisons. We here apply a new LC-MS/MS technique, which has recently been shown to avoid the problem of cross-reactivity due to its high specificity, to quantify CORT concentrations in yolk and albumen in clutches of lesser black-backed gulls Larus fuscus. We found that CORT concentration exhibited a previously unreported U-shaped relationship with time of breeding, which we explain as a potential interplay of two forces exerting extra strain on the early and late breeders. Furthermore, results showed an increase in CORT with laying order indicating the energetic expense of egg production. The levels of CORT assessed in this study were significantly lower than those previously reported in studies using immunoassays for CORT analysis. This supports the fact that incorporating chromatography effectively reduces overestimation of CORT due to cross-reactivity with other steroid hormones, particularly in egg yolk.
- Keywords
- corticosterone, Larus fuscus, LC-MS/MS, lesser black-backed gull, egg, timing of breeding, EUDYPTES-CHRYSOCOME-CHRYSOCOME, LAYING HENS, MATERNAL CORTICOSTERONE, HATCHING ASYNCHRONY, YOLK HORMONES, ALBUMIN, CLUTCHES, STRESS, SIZE, BIOMARKERS
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Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-6982522
- MLA
- Larsen, Tom Rosendahl, et al. “Novel Insights into Relationships between Egg Corticosterone and Timing of Breeding Revealed by LC-MS/MS.” JOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY, vol. 46, no. 6, 2015, pp. 643–47, doi:10.1111/jav.00735.
- APA
- Larsen, T. R., Fairhurst, G. D., De Baere, S., Croubels, S., Müller, W., De Neve, L., & Lens, L. (2015). Novel insights into relationships between egg corticosterone and timing of breeding revealed by LC-MS/MS. JOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY, 46(6), 643–647. https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.00735
- Chicago author-date
- Larsen, Tom Rosendahl, Graham D Fairhurst, Siegrid De Baere, Siska Croubels, Wendt Müller, Liesbeth De Neve, and Luc Lens. 2015. “Novel Insights into Relationships between Egg Corticosterone and Timing of Breeding Revealed by LC-MS/MS.” JOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY 46 (6): 643–47. https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.00735.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Larsen, Tom Rosendahl, Graham D Fairhurst, Siegrid De Baere, Siska Croubels, Wendt Müller, Liesbeth De Neve, and Luc Lens. 2015. “Novel Insights into Relationships between Egg Corticosterone and Timing of Breeding Revealed by LC-MS/MS.” JOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY 46 (6): 643–647. doi:10.1111/jav.00735.
- Vancouver
- 1.Larsen TR, Fairhurst GD, De Baere S, Croubels S, Müller W, De Neve L, et al. Novel insights into relationships between egg corticosterone and timing of breeding revealed by LC-MS/MS. JOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY. 2015;46(6):643–7.
- IEEE
- [1]T. R. Larsen et al., “Novel insights into relationships between egg corticosterone and timing of breeding revealed by LC-MS/MS,” JOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY, vol. 46, no. 6, pp. 643–647, 2015.
@article{6982522,
abstract = {{Inter- and intra-clutch variation in egg corticosterone (CORT), the major glucocorticoid in birds, may provide insights into how maternal stress levels vary with the timing of breeding and with laying order. Common analytical methods (e.g. immunoassays), however, suffer from cross-reaction with other steroids, leading to potential overestimation of CORT concentrations which can obscure true hormone-environment relationships and complicate among-study comparisons. We here apply a new LC-MS/MS technique, which has recently been shown to avoid the problem of cross-reactivity due to its high specificity, to quantify CORT concentrations in yolk and albumen in clutches of lesser black-backed gulls Larus fuscus. We found that CORT concentration exhibited a previously unreported U-shaped relationship with time of breeding, which we explain as a potential interplay of two forces exerting extra strain on the early and late breeders. Furthermore, results showed an increase in CORT with laying order indicating the energetic expense of egg production. The levels of CORT assessed in this study were significantly lower than those previously reported in studies using immunoassays for CORT analysis. This supports the fact that incorporating chromatography effectively reduces overestimation of CORT due to cross-reactivity with other steroid hormones, particularly in egg yolk.}},
author = {{Larsen, Tom Rosendahl and Fairhurst, Graham D and De Baere, Siegrid and Croubels, Siska and Müller, Wendt and De Neve, Liesbeth and Lens, Luc}},
issn = {{0908-8857}},
journal = {{JOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY}},
keywords = {{corticosterone,Larus fuscus,LC-MS/MS,lesser black-backed gull,egg,timing of breeding,EUDYPTES-CHRYSOCOME-CHRYSOCOME,LAYING HENS,MATERNAL CORTICOSTERONE,HATCHING ASYNCHRONY,YOLK HORMONES,ALBUMIN,CLUTCHES,STRESS,SIZE,BIOMARKERS}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{6}},
pages = {{643--647}},
title = {{Novel insights into relationships between egg corticosterone and timing of breeding revealed by LC-MS/MS}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jav.00735}},
volume = {{46}},
year = {{2015}},
}
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