Fig. 2: Effects of food and feeding times on night sleep, food intake, fattening and body mass gain, and hepatic expression of clock genes in diurnal zebra finches under the dLAN environment. | npj Biological Timing and Sleep

Fig. 2: Effects of food and feeding times on night sleep, food intake, fattening and body mass gain, and hepatic expression of clock genes in diurnal zebra finches under the dLAN environment.

From: Ecology of timekeeping: feeding times effect clock-controlled behavior, metabolism and reproduction in diurnal vertebrates

Fig. 2

The figure presents a comparison of different parameters related to the behavior (sleep, feeding; left panel), physiology (middle panel), and hepatic clock gene expressions (right panel) between female zebra finches exposed to LD (12 h light at ~150 lux coupled with 12 h darkness at 0 lux (LD) or with dim light at night (~5 lux, dLAN). a plasma oxalate levels, a marker of sleep debt. b Nocturnal feeding duration. c Nocturnal feeding bouts; i.e., feeding frequency. d Food intake. e Body mass. f Subjective score of body fattening. g–i Hepatic mRNA expression of clock genes (Per2, Bmal1 and Rev-erb b). Note significant effects under the dLAN in different parameters at p < 0.05 level, as indicated by an asterisk, and changes in the phase and/ or amplitude of daily mRNA oscillations clock genes. Interestingly, food intake was higher at night under the dLAN but the total 24-h food intake did not differ significantly between LD and dLAN conditions. The figure is drawn based on results from our laboratory included in publications by Batra et al.45,46,48 (for reference details see the reference section).

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