Effect of the reproductive season on mitochondrial respiration and decoupling of tegu Salvator merianae lizards

• Grant number: 20/10961-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2020
• End date: November 30, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Compared Physiology
• Principal Investigator: Kênia Cardoso Bícego
• Grantee: Livia Saccani Hervas
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The tegu lizard Salvator merianae is widely distributed in South America and stands out for presenting endothermia during the reproductive phase (ER) in the spring. This ER is characterized by an increase in body emperature in relation to the ambient temperature concomitant with increased heart rate, but this thermogenic source is not yet described. Mitochondrial respiration and decoupling are considered to be important aspects of facultative muscle thermogenesis independent of tremor in birds and mammals. Thus, in the present project, the hypothesis that there will be an increase in mitochondrial respiration and / or decoupling in the skeletal muscle of S. merianae lizards during RE (spring) in contrast to the activity season, but out of breeding (summer). 10 tegus S. merianae, male (n = 5) and female (n = 5), adult will be used for the removal of small sample (biopsy) of skeletal muscle twice, in September / October (spring, breeding) and in February (summer, activity). At each station, the sample of biopsy will be divided into two parts, the first part being permeabilized and used for analysis of mitochondrial respiration / uncoupling in oxygraph, and then analyzed for to the content of intact mitochondria. The second part of the sample will be used for detection of ANT (nucleotide translocator adenine) and UCP (uncouple protein), proteins possibly involved in the mitochondrial uncoupling, using the western blotting technique.