Fig. 3: Effects of food availability times on reproductive performance and epigenetic molecular correlates in diurnal zebra finches under 24-h light-dark cycle.
Left panel describes the experimental design. Zebra finch pairs hatched and raised indoors under 12 h light: 12 h darkness (L= ~150 lux; D = 0 lux) were subjected to a 4-h food restriction in the morning (FA-M: hour 0-4, aligned with light on time – hour 0) or evening (FA-E: hour 8–12, aligned with light off time), with controls on food ad libitum (FAL) for about a year. The middle panel presents the time-dependent effects of food restriction on measures of reproduction (top two figures), and a correlation of plasma T (testosterone) levels in males with the offspring survival (bottom figure). The right most panel shows food restriction effects on hypothalamic expression Hdac genes linked with the epigenetic regulation. The alphabets on bars indicate comparison between three feeding groups; same alphabet – no difference; different alphabets—a significant difference at p < 0.05 level. The figure is drawn based on results from our laboratory included in publications by Mishra and Kumar3, and Mishra et al.27; for reference details see the reference section.
