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Petrullo L, Delaney D, Boutin S, McAdam AG, Lane JE, Boonstra R, Palme R, Dantzer B. The glucocorticoid response to environmental change is not specific to agents of natural selection in wild red squirrels. Horm Behav 2022; 146:105262. [PMID: 36191397 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2022.105262] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2022] [Revised: 08/30/2022] [Accepted: 09/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Evolutionary endocrinology aims to understand how natural selection shapes endocrine systems and the degree to which endocrine systems themselves can induce phenotypic responses to environmental changes. Such responses may be specialized in that they reflect past selection for responsiveness only to those ecological factors that ultimately influence natural selection. Alternatively, endocrine responses may be broad and generalized, allowing organisms to cope with a variety of environmental changes simultaneously. Here, we empirically tested whether the endocrine response of female North American red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) was specialized or generalized. We first quantified the direction and magnitude of natural selection acting on three female life history traits (parturition date, litter size, offspring postnatal growth rate) during 32 years of fluctuations in four potential ecological agents of selection (food availability, conspecific density, predator abundance, and temperature). Only three of the four variables (food, density, and predators) affected patterns of natural selection on female life history traits. We then quantified fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGMs) across 7 years and found that all four environmental variables, regardless of their effects on patterns of selection, were associated with glucocorticoid production. Our results provide support for a generalized, rather than specific, glucocorticoid response to environmental change that can integrate across multiple co-occurring environmental stressors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauren Petrullo
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48108, USA.
| | - David Delaney
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
| | - Stan Boutin
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada
| | - Andrew G McAdam
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
| | - Jeffrey E Lane
- Department of Biology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5E2, Canada
| | - Rudy Boonstra
- Department of Biological Sciences, Centre for the Neurobiology of Stress, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON M1C 1A6, Canada
| | - Rupert Palme
- Unit of Physiology, Pathophysiology and Experimental Endocrinology, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Veterina ̈rplatz 1, Vienna 1210, Austria
| | - Ben Dantzer
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48108, USA; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48108, USA
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2
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Abou-Fadel J, Jiang X, Padarti A, Goswami DG, Smith M, Grajeda B, Bhalli M, Le A, Walker WE, Zhang J. mPR-Specific Actions Influence Maintenance of the Blood–Brain Barrier (BBB). Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms23179684. [PMID: 36077089 PMCID: PMC9456378 DOI: 10.3390/ijms23179684] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2022] [Revised: 08/15/2022] [Accepted: 08/24/2022] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are characterized by abnormally dilated intracranial microvascular sinusoids that result in increased susceptibility to hemorrhagic stroke. It has been demonstrated that three CCM proteins (CCM1, CCM2, and CCM3) form the CCM signaling complex (CSC) to mediate angiogenic signaling. Disruption of the CSC will result in hemorrhagic CCMs, a consequence of compromised blood–brain barrier (BBB) integrity. Due to their characteristically incomplete penetrance, the majority of CCM mutation carriers (presumed CCM patients) are largely asymptomatic, but when symptoms occur, the disease has typically reached a clinical stage of focal hemorrhage with irreversible brain damage. We recently reported that the CSC couples both classic (nuclear; nPRs) and nonclassic (membrane; mPRs) progesterone (PRG)-receptors-mediated signaling within the CSC-mPRs-PRG (CmP) signaling network in nPR(−) breast cancer cells. In this report, we demonstrate that depletion of any of the three CCM genes or treatment with mPR-specific PRG actions (PRG/mifepristone) results in the disruption of the CmP signaling network, leading to increased permeability in the nPR(−) endothelial cells (ECs) monolayer in vitro. Finally, utilizing our in vivo hemizygous Ccm mutant mice models, we demonstrate that depletion of any of the three CCM genes, in combination with mPR-specific PRG actions, is also capable of leading to defective homeostasis of PRG in vivo and subsequent BBB disruption, allowing us to identify a specific panel of etiological blood biomarkers associated with BBB disruption. To our knowledge, this is the first report detailing the etiology to predict the occurrence of a disrupted BBB, an indication of early hemorrhagic events.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johnathan Abou-Fadel
- Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine (MTM), Texas Tech University Health Science Center El Paso, El Paso, TX 79905, USA
| | - Xiaoting Jiang
- Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine (MTM), Texas Tech University Health Science Center El Paso, El Paso, TX 79905, USA
| | - Akhil Padarti
- Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine (MTM), Texas Tech University Health Science Center El Paso, El Paso, TX 79905, USA
| | - Dinesh G. Goswami
- Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine (MTM), Texas Tech University Health Science Center El Paso, El Paso, TX 79905, USA
| | - Mark Smith
- Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine (MTM), Texas Tech University Health Science Center El Paso, El Paso, TX 79905, USA
| | - Brian Grajeda
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79902, USA
| | - Muaz Bhalli
- Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine (MTM), Texas Tech University Health Science Center El Paso, El Paso, TX 79905, USA
| | - Alexander Le
- Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine (MTM), Texas Tech University Health Science Center El Paso, El Paso, TX 79905, USA
| | - Wendy E. Walker
- Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine (MTM), Texas Tech University Health Science Center El Paso, El Paso, TX 79905, USA
| | - Jun Zhang
- Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine (MTM), Texas Tech University Health Science Center El Paso, El Paso, TX 79905, USA
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +1-915-215-4197
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3
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Meter B, Kratochvíl L, Kubička L, Starostová Z. Development of male-larger sexual size dimorphism in a lizard: IGF1 peak long after sexual maturity overlaps with pronounced growth in males. Front Physiol 2022; 13:917460. [PMID: 36035474 PMCID: PMC9399403 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2022.917460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2022] [Accepted: 07/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Squamate reptiles have been considered to be indeterminate growers for a long time. However, recent studies demonstrate that bone prolongation is stopped in many lizards by the closure of bone growth plates. This shift in the paradigm of lizard growth has important consequences for questions concerning the proximate causes of sexual size dimorphism. The traditional model of highly plastic and indeterminate growth would correspond more to a long-term action of a sex-specific growth regulator. On the other hand, determinate growth would be more consistent with a regulator acting in a sex-specific manner on the activity of bone growth plates operating during the phase when a dimorphism in size develops. We followed the growth of males and females of the male-larger Madagascar ground gecko (Paroedura picta) and monitored the activity of bone growth plates, gonad size, levels of steroids, expression of their receptors (AR, ESR1), and expression of genes from the insulin-like growth factor network (IGF1, IGF2, IGF1R, and IGF2R) in livers. Specifically, we measured gene expression before the onset of dimorphic growth, at the time when males have more active bone growth plates and sexual size dimorphism was clearly visible, and after a period of pronounced growth in both sexes. We found a significant spike in the expression of IGF1 in males around the time when dimorphism develops. This overexpression in males comes long after an increase in circulating testosterone levels and sexual maturation in males, and it might be suppressed by ovarian hormones in females. The results suggest that sexual size dimorphism in male-larger lizards can be caused by a positive effect of high levels of IGF1 on bone growth. The peak in IGF1 resembles the situation during the pubertal growth spurt in humans, but in lizards, it seems to be sex-specific and disconnected from sexual maturation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brandon Meter
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czechia
| | - Lukáš Kratochvíl
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czechia
- *Correspondence: Lukáš Kratochvíl,
| | - Lukáš Kubička
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czechia
| | - Zuzana Starostová
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czechia
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4
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Guindre-Parker S, Rubenstein DR. Long-Term Measures of Climate Unpredictability Shape the Avian Endocrine Stress Axis. Am Nat 2021; 198:394-405. [PMID: 34403319 DOI: 10.1086/715628] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
AbstractThe vertebrate glucocorticoid stress response is an important mechanism facilitating pleiotropic phenotypic adjustments for coping with environmental change and optimizing fitness. Although circulating glucocorticoid hormones are mediators of plasticity that individuals can adjust rapidly in response to environmental challenges, they are also shaped by ecological selection. It remains unclear, however, how environmental variation on different timescales influences glucocorticoids. Here, we use an intraspecific comparative approach to determine how variation in precipitation on different timescales (months, years, decades) shapes distinct components of the glucocorticoid response. We sampled superb starlings (Lamprotornis superbus) at eight sites across Kenya in multiple years that differed in precipitation. Among-population variation in baseline glucocorticoids was shaped by both short- and long-term precipitation, whereas variation in stress-induced levels was poorly explained by precipitation on any timescale. Adrenal sensitivity, quantified via adrenocorticotropic hormone injections, was shaped by long-term precipitation and was highest in unpredictable environments. Together, these results suggest that variation in glucocorticoids can be best explained by environmental variation at timescales that extend beyond the lives of individuals, although baseline glucocorticoids also reflect short-term environmental conditions. Patterns of long-term precipitation may represent a microevolutionary selective pressure shaping the endocrine stress axis across populations and influencing how individuals cope with environmental change.
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Baldan D, Negash M, Ouyang JQ. Are individuals consistent? Endocrine reaction norms under different ecological challenges. J Exp Biol 2021; 224:269204. [PMID: 34142697 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.240499] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2020] [Accepted: 05/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
Quantifying organismal capacity for compensatory mechanisms is essential to forecast responses to environmental change. Despite accumulating evidence for individual variation in physiological plasticity, the causes and consequences of this variation remain unclear. An outstanding question is whether individual reaction norms are consistent across different environmental challenges, i.e. whether an individual that is responsive to one environmental variable will be equally responsive to a different environmental variable. Additionally, are these reaction norms themselves consistent over time, i.e. repeatable? Here, we quantified individual baseline glucocorticoid responses in house sparrows, Passer domesticus, to sequential manipulations of temperature, wind speed and food unpredictability that were repeated in discrete blocks of sampling under both control and stressor-exposed conditions. Individuals significantly decreased their baseline corticosterone levels and increased their mass during treatment exposure. This response was consistent across environmental challenge types. There was high repeatability in the intercept and slope of the baseline corticosterone reaction norm between environmental challenges but broad credible intervals in the repeatability of the reaction norm slope, suggesting that although glucocorticoid levels during baseline conditions are repeatable, among-individual variation in the shape of the glucocorticoid response may be higher than within-individual variation. Within-subject variation in baseline corticosterone levels was mainly explained by within-individual variation in body mass during stressor exposure. Despite the high lability in physiological traits, endocrine plasticity is repeatable across environmental challenges and may be able to evolve as a result of genetic accommodation, in which selection acts on genetic variation of reaction norms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Davide Baldan
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV 89557-0314, USA
| | - Mekail Negash
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV 89557-0314, USA
| | - Jenny Q Ouyang
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV 89557-0314, USA
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6
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Affiliation(s)
- Sean C Lema
- Biological Sciences Department, Center for Coastal Marine Sciences, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93407, USA.
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7
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Matsunami M, Miura T, Kishida O, Michimae H, Nishimura K. Expression of Genes Involved in Offensive and Defensive Phenotype Induction in the Pituitary Gland of the Hokkaido Salamander (Hynobius retardatus). Zoolog Sci 2020; 37:563-574. [DOI: 10.2108/zs190140] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2019] [Accepted: 07/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Masatoshi Matsunami
- Graduate School of Medicine, University of the Ryukyus, Nishihara-cho, Okinawa 903-0215, Japan
| | - Toru Miura
- Misaki Marine Biological Station, University of Tokyo, Miura, Kanagawa 238-0225, Japan
| | - Osamu Kishida
- Tomakomai Experimental Forest, Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, Tomakomai, Hokkaido 053-0035, Japan
| | - Hirofumi Michimae
- School of Pharmacy, Department of Clinical Medicine (Biostatistics), Kitasato University, Tokyo 108-8641, Japan
| | - Kinya Nishimura
- Graduate School of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, Hakodate, Hokkaido 041-8611, Japan
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8
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Harris BN. Stress hypothesis overload: 131 hypotheses exploring the role of stress in tradeoffs, transitions, and health. Gen Comp Endocrinol 2020; 288:113355. [PMID: 31830473 DOI: 10.1016/j.ygcen.2019.113355] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2019] [Revised: 12/06/2019] [Accepted: 12/06/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Stress is ubiquitous and thus, not surprisingly, many hypotheses and models have been created to better study the role stress plays in life. Stress spans fields and is found in the literature of biology, psychology, psychophysiology, sociology, economics, and medicine, just to name a few. Stress, and the hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal/interrenal (HPA/I) axis and sympathetic nervous system (SNS), are involved in a multitude of behaviors and physiological processes, including life-history and ecological tradeoffs, developmental transitions, health, and survival. The goal of this review is to highlight and summarize the large number of available hypotheses and models, to aid in comparative and interdisciplinary thinking, and to increase reproducibility by a) discouraging hypothesizing after results are known (HARKing) and b) encouraging a priori hypothesis testing. For this review I collected 214 published hypotheses or models dealing broadly with stress. In the main paper, I summarized and categorized 131 of those hypotheses and models which made direct connections among stress and/or HPA/I and SNS, tradeoffs, transitions, and health. Of those 131, the majority made predictions about reproduction (n = 43), the transition from health to disease (n = 38), development (n = 23), and stress coping (n = 18). Additional hypotheses were classified as stage-spanning or models (n = 37). The additional 83 hypotheses found during searches were tangentially related, or pertained to immune function or oxidative stress, and these are listed separately. Many of the hypotheses share underlying rationale and suggest similar, if not identical, predictions, and are thus not mutually exclusive; some hypotheses spanned classification categories. Some of the hypotheses have been tested multiple times, whereas others have only been examined a few times. It is the hope that multi-disciplinary stress researchers will begin to harmonize their naming of hypotheses in the literature so as to build a clearer picture of how stress impacts various outcomes across fields. The paper concludes with some considerations and recommendations for robust testing of stress hypotheses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Breanna N Harris
- Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, United States.
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9
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Cox RM. Sex steroids as mediators of phenotypic integration, genetic correlations, and evolutionary transitions. Mol Cell Endocrinol 2020; 502:110668. [PMID: 31821857 DOI: 10.1016/j.mce.2019.110668] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2019] [Revised: 11/19/2019] [Accepted: 11/26/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
In recent decades, endocrinologists have increasingly adopted evolutionary methods and perspectives to characterize the evolution of the vertebrate endocrine system and leverage it as a model for developing and testing evolutionary theories. This review summarizes recent research on sex steroids (androgens and estrogens) to illustrate three ways in which a detailed understanding of the molecular and cellular architecture of hormonally mediated gene expression can enhance our understanding of general evolutionary principles. By virtue of their massively pleiotropic effects on the expression of genes and phenotypes, sex steroids and their receptors can (1) structure the patterns of phenotypic variance and covariance that are available to natural selection, (2) alter the underlying genetic correlations that determine a population's evolutionary response to selection, and (3) facilitate evolutionary transitions in fitness-related phenotypes via subtle regulatory shifts in underlying tissues and genes. These principles are illustrated by the author's research on testosterone and sexual dimorphism in lizards, and by recent examples drawn from other vertebrate systems. Mechanistically, these examples call attention to the importance of evolutionary changes in (1) androgen- and estrogen-mediated gene expression, (2) androgen and estrogen receptor expression, and (3) the distribution of androgen and estrogen response elements in target genes throughout the genome. A central theme to emerge from this review is that the rapidly increasing availability of genomic and transcriptomic data from non-model organisms places evolutionary endocrinologist in an excellent position to address the hormonal regulation of the key evolutionary interface between genes and phenotypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert M Cox
- Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22904, USA.
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10
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Csaba G. Provocation of life functions at a unicellular eukaryote level by extremely low doses of mammalian hormones: Evidences of hormesis. Acta Microbiol Immunol Hung 2019; 67:1-5. [PMID: 31813260 DOI: 10.1556/030.66.2019.031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2019] [Accepted: 05/15/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Hormones, characteristic to higher ranked animals, are synthesized, stored, and secreted by unicellular eukaryote animals. The unicells also have receptors for recognizing these materials and transmit the message into the cells for provoking response. The hormones are effective in very low concentrations (down to 10-21 M) and opposite effects of lower and higher concentrations can be observed. However, sometimes linear concentration effects can be found, which means that hormesis exists, nevertheless uncertain, as it is in the phase of formation (evolutionary experimentation). Hormesis, by transformation (fixation) of cytoplasmic receptor-like membrane components to receptors in the presence of the given hormone, likely helps the development of unicellular endocrine character and by this the evolution of endocrine system. The effect by extremely low concentrations of hormones had been forced by the watery way of unicellular life, which could establish the physiological concentrations of hormones in the blood of higher ranked animals. This means that hormetic low doses are the normal, effective concentrations and the high concentrations are artificial, consequently could be dangerous.
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Affiliation(s)
- György Csaba
- 1 Department of Genetics, Cell- and Immunobiology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
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11
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Vitousek MN, Johnson MA, Husak JF. Illuminating Endocrine Evolution: The Power and Potential of Large-Scale Comparative Analyses. Integr Comp Biol 2018; 58:712-719. [DOI: 10.1093/icb/icy098] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Maren N Vitousek
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA
| | - Michele A Johnson
- Department of Biology, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212, USA
| | - Jerry F Husak
- Department of Biology, University of St. Thomas, 2115 Summit Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105, USA
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12
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Wingfield JC. Environmental Endocrinology: Insights into the Diversity of Regulatory Mechanisms in Life Cycles. Integr Comp Biol 2018; 58:790-799. [DOI: 10.1093/icb/icy081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- John C Wingfield
- Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
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13
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Guindre-Parker S. The Evolutionary Endocrinology of Circulating Glucocorticoids in Free-Living Vertebrates: Recent Advances and Future Directions across Scales of Study. Integr Comp Biol 2018; 58:814-825. [DOI: 10.1093/icb/icy048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Guindre-Parker
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Summerlee Science Complex, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1
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14
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Davidowitz G. Endocrine Proxies Can Simplify Endocrine Complexity to Enable Evolutionary Prediction. Integr Comp Biol 2016; 56:198-206. [DOI: 10.1093/icb/icw021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/14/2023] Open
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