TY - JOUR
T1 - Ambient temperature and nutritional stress influence fatty acid composition of structural and fuel lipids in Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) tissues
AU - Ben-Hamo, Miriam
AU - McCue, Marshall D.
AU - Khozin-Goldberg, Inna
AU - McWilliams, Scott R.
AU - Pinshow, Berry
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to Shoshanna Didi-Cohen for her invaluable help with GC analyses of fatty acid methyl esters. This project was funded by US–Israel Binational Science Foundation Grant 2005119 to B. Pinshow and S. R. McWilliams. During the study, M. D. McCue was a Blaustein Postdoctoral Fellow and M. Ben-Hamo was the recipient of a Negev Fellowship. These experiments were done under permit BGU-R-06-2009 (to B. Pinshow) of the BGU Animal Care and Ethics Committee. This is paper #807 of the Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology.
PY - 2013/1/1
Y1 - 2013/1/1
N2 - In birds, fatty acids (FA) serve as the primary metabolic fuel during exercise and fasting, and their composition affects metabolic rate and thus energy requirements. To ascertain the relationship between FAs and metabolic rate, a distinction should be made between structural and fuel lipids. Indeed, increased unsaturation of structural lipid FAs brings about increased cell metabolism, and changes in the FA composition of fuel lipids affects metabolic rate through selective mobilization and increasing availability of specific FAs. We examined the effects of acclimation to a low ambient temperature (Ta: 12.7±3.0°C) and nutritional status (fed or unfed) on the FA composition of four tissues in Japanese quail, Coturnix japonica. Differentiating between neutral (triglycerides) and polar (phospholipids) lipids, we tested the hypothesis that both acclimation to low Ta and nutritional status modify FA composition of triglycerides and phospholipids. We found that both factors affect FA composition of triglycerides, but not the composition of phospholipids. We also found changes in liver triacylglyceride FA composition in the low-Ta acclimated quail, namely, the two FAs that differed, oleic acid (18:1) and arachidonic acid (20:4), were associated with thermoregulation. In addition, the FAs that changed with nutritional status were all reported to be involved in regulation of glucose metabolism, and thus we suggest that they also play a role in the response to fasting.
AB - In birds, fatty acids (FA) serve as the primary metabolic fuel during exercise and fasting, and their composition affects metabolic rate and thus energy requirements. To ascertain the relationship between FAs and metabolic rate, a distinction should be made between structural and fuel lipids. Indeed, increased unsaturation of structural lipid FAs brings about increased cell metabolism, and changes in the FA composition of fuel lipids affects metabolic rate through selective mobilization and increasing availability of specific FAs. We examined the effects of acclimation to a low ambient temperature (Ta: 12.7±3.0°C) and nutritional status (fed or unfed) on the FA composition of four tissues in Japanese quail, Coturnix japonica. Differentiating between neutral (triglycerides) and polar (phospholipids) lipids, we tested the hypothesis that both acclimation to low Ta and nutritional status modify FA composition of triglycerides and phospholipids. We found that both factors affect FA composition of triglycerides, but not the composition of phospholipids. We also found changes in liver triacylglyceride FA composition in the low-Ta acclimated quail, namely, the two FAs that differed, oleic acid (18:1) and arachidonic acid (20:4), were associated with thermoregulation. In addition, the FAs that changed with nutritional status were all reported to be involved in regulation of glucose metabolism, and thus we suggest that they also play a role in the response to fasting.
KW - Bird
KW - Fasting
KW - Membranes
KW - Metabolic rate
KW - Nonpolar lipids
KW - Phospholipids
KW - Starvation
KW - Triglycerides
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84880395716&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cbpa.2013.06.017
DO - 10.1016/j.cbpa.2013.06.017
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84880395716
SN - 1095-6433
VL - 166
SP - 244
EP - 250
JO - Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology - A Molecular and Integrative Physiology
JF - Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology - A Molecular and Integrative Physiology
IS - 2
ER -