We describe developmental changes in maltasic activity and its mRNA through adulthood, and in response to increase in dietary starch. We studied house sparrows (HOSP; Passer domesticus L.), which undergo a natural switch from insects to starch-containing seed diet during development, and zebra finch (ZEBF; Taeniopygia guttata V.), which have a relatively fixed starchy-seed diet during development. In ZEBF, in whom maltasic activity increased with age but not with dietary starch, α –glycosidase (AG) mRNA was not affected by either age or dietary starch level. In HOSP nestlings, in whom maltasic activity increased with age and with added starch, AG mRNA was higher on diet with added starch but did not increase with age. These results are consistent with the idea that the apparent programmed developmental increase in maltasic activity is not mainly under transcriptional control of AG mRNA, whereas induction of maltasic activity by increased dietary starch is.
Intestinal α –glycosidase transcriptional responses during development and diet adjustment in altricial birds
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Claudia Gatica-Sosa, Pawel Brzęk, Melisa Magallanes, William H. Karasov, Enrique Caviedes-Vidal; Intestinal α –glycosidase transcriptional responses during development and diet adjustment in altricial birds. J Exp Biol 2018; jeb.171827. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.171827
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