Abstract
Many bird species show a loss of female muscle mass at the time of egg formation. In this study we investigated whether there was a causal link between the loss in muscle condition and the formation of egg proteins by feeding 35S-methionine to female zebra finches to label muscle proteins. When these birds subsequently bred the isotope was transferred to the egg proteins: isotope loss from female muscle tissue was significantly greater in birds which had bred than in control groups which had not.
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Communicated by H. Huddart
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Houston, D.C., Donnan, D. & Jones, P.J. Use of labelled methionine to investigate the contribution of muscle proteins to egg production in zebra finches. J Comp Physiol B 165, 161–164 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00301480
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00301480