Differential cell stress responses to food availability by the nestlings of Asian Short-toed Lark (Calandrella cheleensis)

Background Timing of breeding season of temperate passerines has been considered to be adjusted to their food availability. There is little work to reveal the cell stress responses of the nestlings hatched asynchronized with the food abundance peak, which is important for understanding the physiological link between the timing of breeding and the fitness of offspring.

Methods Using gene expression level of blood HSP70 and HSP90 as indicators, we compared the cell stress response of Asian Short-toed Lark (Calandrella cheleensis) nestlings hatched under conditions of low, mid or high food (grasshopper nymph) availability in 2017.

Results Nymph biomass, sample time and interaction of these two factors significantly influenced the blood gene expression level of HSP70 and HSP90 of Asian Short-toed Lark nestlings. HSP70 and HSP90 gene expression levels of the nestlings at 14:00 were significantly higher than those at 5:00. At either 5:00 or 14:00, the gene expression levels of HSP70 and HSP90 increase with the decrease of nymph biomass.

Conclusions These results indicate that food availability is an important environment factor inducing cellular stress of Asian Short-toed Lark nestlings. The interactive effect of the nymph abundance and sample time on the HSPs response may be related with the daily temperature variation of the grassland. Over cell stress response may be one of physiological factor mediating the effect of food availability and the nestling's fitness.