Stress influences telomere dynamics as predicted by changes in mortality rates

September 3, 2021February 1, 2022 / Valeria Marasco / Leave a comment

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

March 30, 2021March 30, 2021 / Valeria Marasco / Leave a comment

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

Transcriptome of the migratory Common quail

July 30, 2020March 12, 2021 / Valeria Marasco / Leave a comment

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.

quaglia_in_canto_GianniPola