Delighted to announce the publication of our latest article led by Sebastiano et al. in Current Opinion in Toxicology stressing the need to integrate hormesis in eco-toxicological research – you can read here the uncorrected proof
Author: Valeria Marasco
Stress influences telomere dynamics as predicted by changes in mortality rates
It is a pleasure to introduce our last paper on stress and ageing in #theFASEBJournal
This latest paper is associated with our previous findings where we found that the repeated exposure to challenging environmental circumstances during adult life increased chances of survival during middle adulthood, but not during young- or old-adulthood. Here we report that these effects are underpinned by changes in telomere dynamics, with stress-exposed birds showing reduced telomere loss in middle adulthood. Our data provides novel experimental evidence that telomere dynamics play a key role linking stress resilience and aging.
Avian fitness: birds go easy on their pectoral muscles
PressRelease by the Vetmed about our freshly published article in Journal of Experimental Biology:
“Controlled expression of the migratory phenotype affects oxidative status in birds”
by myself, Manrico Sebastiano, David Costantini, Gianni Pola, Leonida Fusani
Really proud to see this out. A big challenge since the very beginning. It “officially” all started in 2017 in an empty room in the Konrak Lorenz Institute of Ethology (Vetmeduni Vienna) with 0 Common quails 🙂
Link to access the full article: https://jeb.biologists.org/content/224/6/jeb233486
Stress in the egg makes gull chicks fitter
My first article for Outside JEB is now out! It discusses the paper by Noguera et al in Molecular Ecology suggesting that maternally derived stress hormones may be an important mechanism for mothers to transmit signals to their chicks that help them “program” their biology for life outside.
Transcriptome of the migratory Common quail
Check out our freshly published open access paper on the brain de novo transcriptome of the migratory Common quail in Data in Brief:
In this article, we developed a high quality pipeline for compiling transcriptomes of complex non-genomic species. Our data not only can provide a robust reference for gene expression studies in migratory birds but will also be useful for studies in related Galliforms, including the Japanese quail, a recognised model in behavioural neuroendocrinology and physiology research.
@Photo credit: Gianni Pola
MSc project in behavioural biology and migratory bird physiology
We are looking for a motivated Master/Diploma student who would like to gain experience and knowledge on migratory physiology and behavioural biology. The student will be based in the Fusani’s lab a highly vibrant and constantly expanding research environment.
The student’s work will be part of a FWF-funded project on the role of environmental stress in the expression of migratory behaviour using the Common quail as our study species. The work will be performed from July 2020 until November 2020 at the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology. The working language is English. Previous experience with birds is very welcome but not necessary.
The student will have the opportunity to be involved in all the experimental phases, will be thought how to perform animal experiments in laboratory conditions, to take morphological and physiological measurements, as well as laboratory sample processing procedures. The student will also have the opportunity to learn the use of various methods to monitor time-budget behaviours (e.g. accelerometers). The student will be part of  our large research group with the opportunity to expand knowledge on different topics from animal behaviour and cognitive sciences, animal physiology, bird migration, molecular biology and genomics.
Get in touch for further information on the project. Dr Valeria Marasco, email: valeria.marasco@vetmeduni.ac.at (Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology).
Physiological ecology of life histories 