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Separate effects of macronutrient concentration and balance on plastic gut responses in locusts

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Abstract

It is well established that animal guts are phenotypically plastic, adjusting inter-alia to diet quality. However, the relative contributions due to the two principal dimensions of diet “quality”—nutrient concentration and nutrient balance—remain to be teased apart. We report an experiment using synthetic foods in which the balance and overall concentration (in relation to indigestible cellulose) of protein and digestible carbohydrate were varied orthogonally, and the effects on the dry mass of locust guts measured. There were three principal results: (1) larger guts were associated with dilute compared with concentrated diets, suggesting a compensatory response to ameliorate the impact of reduced diet quality; (2) there was, by contrast, an anti-compensatory response to nutrient imbalance, where larger guts were associated with surplus protein intake; (3) the experimental group given the food that contained low protein and low cellulose, the composition that predicted the smallest guts, showed a bimodal response in which half of the insects had guts that were larger than expected for their cellulose intake, suggesting that they were able to respond to a protein-related cue in the absence of significant dietary fibre. We discuss these results in relation to regulatory theory.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Steve Simpson and Dr David Mayntz for commenting on the manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. Kate Bassil

    Present address: Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto, 155 College Street, Toronto, ON, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Liggins Institute and School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand

    David Raubenheimer

  2. Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK

    Kate Bassil

Authors
  1. David Raubenheimer
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  2. Kate Bassil
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Correspondence to David Raubenheimer.

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Communicated by I.D. Hume.

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Raubenheimer, D., Bassil, K. Separate effects of macronutrient concentration and balance on plastic gut responses in locusts. J Comp Physiol B 177, 849–855 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-007-0180-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-007-0180-5

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