Abstract
The role of maternal investment in avian offspring has considerable life history implications on production traits and therefore potential for the poultry industry. A first generation (G1) of Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) were bred from a 2 × 2 factorial design. Parents were fed either a control or methyl-enhanced (HiBET) diet, and their eggs were treated with a vehicle or corticosterone injection during day 5 of incubation. A subset of G1 birds were subjected to an open field trial (OFT) and capture-restraint stress protocol. Significant effects of HiBET diet were found on parental egg and liver weights, G1 hatch, liver and female reproductive tract weights, egg productivity, latency to leave the OFT central zone, male baseline 11-dehydrocorticosterone, and female androstenedione plasma concentrations. In ovo treatment significantly affected latency to return to the OFT, male baseline testosterone and androstenedione, and change in androstenedione plasma concentration. Diet by treatment interactions were significant for G1 liver weight and male baseline plasma concentrations of corticosterone. These novel findings suggest significant positive effects on reproduction, growth, precociousness, and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis function from enhanced methyl diets, and are important in understanding how in ovo stressors (representing maternal stress), affect the first offspring generation.
Highlights
The role of maternal investment, especially nutritional, in avian offspring has considerable life history implications on production and potential for the poultry industry, and has been well d ocumented[1,2,3,4]
Hepatic enzyme activity is known to be enhanced when poultry diets are supplemented with betaine, resulting in the mobilisation of cholesterol from stored abdominal fat to tissue oxidation and metabolism[22,27]
Increased egg yolk fat content has been found when hen diets have been supplemented with the essential amino acids methionine, choline or betaine[17,45,46]
Summary
The role of maternal investment, especially nutritional, in avian offspring has considerable life history implications on production and potential for the poultry industry, and has been well d ocumented[1,2,3,4]. Maternal nutritional biochemistry may be linked to DNA methylation through dietary changes in levels of the essential nutrients—folate, vitamins B2, B6 and B12, choline, betaine and methionine—required for 1-carbon metabolism[12,13,14], especially in early life. Acting as a methyl donor to the 1-carbon metabolism pathway, betaine, a trimethyl derivative of the amino acid glycine, can substitute for methionine and choline in amino acid production, and protein and lipid synthesis. Early life stress in food producing animals, especially heat stress in poultry species, can have detrimental effects on meat q uality[32]. Whilst disruption of the HPA axis during chronic stress is indicative of detrimental e ffects[37], the rapid return of glucocorticoids to baseline plasma concentrations facilitates additional adaptive risk-taking behaviours and may allow better coping strategies[38,39,40]
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