Novel insights into relationships between egg corticosterone and timing of breeding revealed by LC-MS/MS

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 othe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Avian Biology
Main Authors: Larsen, Tom Rosendahl, Fairhurst, Graham D, De Baere, Siegrid, Croubels, Siska, Müller, Wendt, De Neve, Liesbeth, Lens, Luc
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2015
Subjects:
Biology and Life Sciences
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
Lesser black-backed gull
Online Access:https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/6982522
http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-6982522
https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.00735
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/6982522/file/6983774
Description
Summary: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.

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