Exploring the mechanistic link between corticosterone and insulin-like growth factor-1 in a wild passerine bird.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Physiological regulators of life history trade-offs need to be responsive to sudden changes of resource availability. When homeostasis is challenged by unpredictable stressors, vertebrates respond through a set of physiological reactions, which can promote organismal survival. Glucocorticoids have been traditionally recognized as one of the main regulators of the physiological stress response, but the role of an evolutionarily more conserved pathway, the hypothalamic-pituitary-somatotropic (HPS) axis producing insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) has received much less attention. Although IGF-1 is known to affect several life history traits, little is known about its role in the physiological stress response and it has never been studied directly in adult wild animals.

SUBMITTER: Toth Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6296332 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature