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Endothermy, marsupials and hibernation: a tale from three continents

Date: 
Wednesday, November 20, 2019 - 11:00
Speaker: 
Roberto F. Nespolo
Address: 
LCQB Kitchen, Campus Jussieu, Bâtiment C 4e étage 4 place Jussieu, 75005 PARIS
Affiliation: 
Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Evolutivas, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia(Chile)
Abstract: 

Endothermic animals (i.e., birds and mammals) produce metabolic heat in their bodies in a way that allows them to maintain a near constant body temperature at values that are typically well above ambient temperature. This is an extravagant economy that requires these animals to maintain elevated energy budgets and spend a large part of their resources on basic maintenance. Several endotherms, however, become ectothermic (torpid) as an adaptive strategy to save energy during periods cold periods. However, the fitness-costs of this strategy could be important, as it entails important threats to organs and tissues due to the toxic effects of ROS production during hypoxia and reperfusion. The small South American marsupial, “monito del monte”  "Dromiciops gliroides", known as the missing link between the American and the Australian marsupials, is one of the few South American mammals known to hibernate. Expressing daily torpor and seasonal hibernation (=”opportunistic hibernation”), this species may provide crucial information about the mechanisms and evolutionary origins of mammalian hibernation. Here I briefly present some of the evidence locating Microbiotheria at the base of Australasian phylogeny, then I’ll share our results of a gene-expression analysis of hibernation using RNA-sequencing technology.

Type: 
Genomics Seminar

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