Fossorial Damaraland mole rats do not exhibit a blunted hypercapnic ventilatory response.

ABSTRACT: Damaraland mole rats (DMRs, Fukomys damarensis) are a eusocial fossorial species that spend the majority of their life in densely populated underground burrows, in which they likely experience intermittent periods of elevated CO₂ (i.e. hypercapnia). The primary physiological response to hypercapnia in most mammals is to increase depth and rate of breathing (i.e. hyperpnoea), but this response is often blunted in species that inhabit hypercapnic environments. In their natural habitat, DMRs putatively experience a gaseous environment ranging from normocapnic (0.1% CO₂) to hypercapnic (6.0% CO₂) conditions (Roper et al. 2001 J. Zool. 254, 101-107). As such, we hypothesized that DMRs would exhibit blunted hypercapnic ventilatory and metabolic responses, relativ

SUBMITTER: Zhang SY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6451387 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature