Comparative Study Of Food Quantity On The Phenotypic Difference Of Eothenomys Miletus In Different Areas Of Hengduan Mountains

Phenotypic plasticity of small mammals was a response to ecological environment in order to adapt to survival,and when the environment restored to the suitable conditions,reflections of the physiological changes in animal could return to original state.Food plays an important role in animals' body mass regulation,which had been paid much attention in the field of ecology.When food resources usability were restricted,small mammals mainly regulated the physiological and behavioral patterns to cope with the extreme environment.Physiological aspects mainly adjust some indexes,such as body mass,food intake,metabolic rates,serum leptin levels,hypothalamic neuropeptide gene expression(Neuropeptide Y,NPY;Agouti related peptide,AgRP;Pro-opiomelanocortin,POMC;Cocaine and amphetamine regulated transcript Peptide,CART),body composition and digestive tract.Behavioral aspects mainly were reducing of activity behavior to reduce energy and increasing activity behavior to look food.This present paper was to investigate the phenotype in Eothenomys miletus to deal with the environment and whether the phenotypic plasticity under different food quality acclimation,determining the physiological and behavioral adjustment in E.miletus in different regional distribution.We selected E.miletus from Xianggelila(XGLL)and Jianchuan(JC)region,which captured in winter that food resources were relatively poor,different acclimation of food quality on the physiological regulation and behavior patterns were measured,finally to explored geographical differences in E.miletus betweer XGLL and JC under food shortage condition,in-depth understanding the survival adaptation strategies in E.miletus of two areas,adaptation to the environment in order to increase the chance of survival in E.miletus.This thesis mainly consists of two parts:(1)Comparative study on phenotypic differences in E.miletus under short-duration fasting and refeeding between XGLL and JC from Hengduan mountain regionsIn the present study,the differences of physiological indices in E.miletus under fasting and re-feeding in a short time between XGLL and JC were measured.Theresults showed that significant effects of short-term fasting on body mass,food intake,serum leptin content,hypothalamic neuropeptide expressions and activity behavior were found in E.miletus.Body mass and serum leptin levels of E.miletus in XGLL were significantly lower than those in JC,and food intake and activity behavior were significantly higher than those in JC.Excluding the serum leptin levels,the physiological indexes of the E.miletus in two areas can restore to the control level after 7 days of re-feeding,showing greater phenotypic plasticity.All of the results suggested that there were significant differences in body mass,food intake,serum leptin levels,hypothalamic neuropeptide expression and activity behavior between different habitats,which may be related to the differences of environmental climate and food resource factors.(2)Comparative study on phenotypic differences in E.miletus under food restriction and refeeding between XGLL and JC from Hengduan mountain regionsIn order to investigate the physiological and behavioral changes in E.miletus from XGLL and JC under food restriction(80% FR)and refeeding(Re),body mass,food intake,resting metabolic rate(RMR),serum leptin levels,hypothalamic neuropeptides expression and activity behavior were measured and compared.The results showed that areas and FR had significant effects on body mass,food intake,RMR,activity behavior,serum leptin levels,hypothalamic neuropeptides expression,masses of liver and small intestine in E.miletus.Regional differences are shown as follows: Body mass and serum leptin levels in XGLL were lower than that of JC,food intake,activity behavior,liver mass and RMR in XGLL were higher relative to in JC.All the indexes of the two areas of E.miletus can be restored to control levels after 28 d refeeding,showing phenotypic plasticity.The above results show that the changes of physiological indexes and behavior patterns of the E.miletus in the two regions may be related to the shortage of food resources in the region.In conclusion,the present paper integrates the physiological and behavioral characteristics in E.miletus,elucidating the influence of food and different regions on phenotypic plasticity,which is of great significance for the in-depth understanding of survival and adaptation strategies of mammals from Hengduan mountain regions.