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Activity of Digestive Enzymes in the American Mink (Neovison vison) Selected for Tameness and Defensive Aggression toward Humans

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Abstract

Selection of animals for a defensive reaction toward humans underlies the domestication of species and leads to genome destabilization, as well as restructuring of the nervous and hormonal systems that regulate many physiological functions, including digestion . The aim was to study the activity of digestive enzymes (amylase, lipase and proteases) in the pancreas, duodenum and jejunum of the American mink (Neovison vison) of two behavioral types, aggressive and tame. Our findings suggest that pleiotropic effects of behavioral genes are also involved in the regulation of digestive enzyme activity in the American mink. Despite the same diet, aggressive vs. tame animals were characterized by a higher activity of proteases and lipase, whereas in tame minks, the amylolytic profile of digestive enzyme activity was predominant. Discriminant analysis confirmed the differences between aggressive and tame minks, but not between the two groups of aggressive animals, in terms of the parameters studied. The revealed differences in the profile of the activity of digestive enzymes can be associated with mutations in the enzyme genes, as well as mediated action of hormones involved in stress reactivity.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors express their gratitude to the associates of the Laboratory of ecological physiology of animals (IB FRC KRC), especially to Dr. E.A. Khizhkin, for his assistance in conducting the experiment.

Funding

This work was supported by the Federal budget within the assignment to the IB FRC KarRC RAS (FMEN-2022-0003) and the ICG SB RAS project No. 0259-2021-0015.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biology, Karelian Research Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Petrozavodsk, Russia

    S. N. Kalinina, V. A. Ilyukha & A. V. Morozov

  2. Petrozavodsk State University, Petrozavodsk, Russia

    S. N. Kalinina

  3. Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia

    O. V. Trapezov, L. I. Trapezova, M. A. Nekrasova & M. A. Stepanova

  4. Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia

    O. V. Trapezov

  5. Novosibirsk State Agrarian University, Novosibirsk, Russia

    M. A. Nekrasova, M. A. Stepanova & E. A. Sysoeva

Authors
  1. S. N. Kalinina
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  2. V. A. Ilyukha
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  3. O. V. Trapezov
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  4. A. V. Morozov
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  5. L. I. Trapezova
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  6. M. A. Nekrasova
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  7. M. A. Stepanova
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  8. E. A. Sysoeva
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Contributions

Basic idea and experimental design (O.V.T., V.A.I., S.N.K.), animal handling and biomaterial collection (O.V.T., L.I.T., S.N.K., M.A.N., M.A.S., E.A.S.), laboratory analyses (A.V.M.), data processing (V.A.I., S.N.K.), writing and editing the manuscript (S.N.K., V.A.I., O.V.T.).

Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. N. Kalinina.

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CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest associated with the publication of this article.

Additional information

Translated by A. Polyanovsky

Russian Text © The Author(s), 2022, published in Zhurnal Evolyutsionnoi Biokhimii i Fiziologii, 2022, Vol. 58, No. 1, pp. 61–68https://doi.org/10.31857/S0044452922010028.

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Kalinina, S.N., Ilyukha, V.A., Trapezov, O.V. et al. Activity of Digestive Enzymes in the American Mink (Neovison vison) Selected for Tameness and Defensive Aggression toward Humans. J Evol Biochem Phys 58, 64–72 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0022093022010069

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0022093022010069

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