Integrative analysis of the energetic and hydric patterns in marsupials

• Grant number: 07/02837-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - New Frontiers
• Start date: February 03, 2008
• End date: February 02, 2009
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Compared Physiology
• Principal Investigator: Ariovaldo Pereira da Cruz-Neto
• Grantee: Ariovaldo Pereira da Cruz-Neto
• Host Investigator: Philip Carew Withers
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Western Australia (UWA), Australia

Abstract

The description of the physiological mechanisms that allows animals to maintain their basic requirements has always been a central goal in studies of animal physiology. Analyses of the causes and consequences, as well as the mechanistic basis, of hydric and energetic patterns are widely used pivotal to assess the diversity of physiological mechanisms. In this regard, laboratory measurements of the basal metabolic rate and evaporative water loss are pivotal. However, analyses that seek to unravel the proximate and ultimate causes responsible for the diversity in these parameters are controversial and, more important, lack an integrative approach. Moreover, a fully interpretation of the significance of these parameters requires the correlation with analogous field-based measurements, an approach still in its infancy and already subject to controversies. Within these contexts, the present project aims to perform a broad quantification of the basal metabolic rate and evaporative water loss in marsupials, and to analyze the factors the proximate and ultimate factors that affect their variability. Such analyses will be performed for a wide range of species and the results analyzed in an integrative way. As a counterpart of such analysis, I will develop standardize protocols to measure evaporative water loss, which will help to overcome noticeable problems with such measurements. Also, analogous measurements of these parameters will be obtained in field conditions for some species, allowing for a more accurate analysis of the causes and consequences of the variability in these parameters. Finally, this project, besides its inherent conceptual importance, will allow me to gain excellence in several methodologies and, thus, will be pivotal for open new avenues for research in comparative physiology in Brazil. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

BARKER, JUSTINE M.; COOPER, CHRISTINE E.; WITHERS, PHILIP C.; CRUZ-NETO, ARIOVALDO P.. Thermoregulation by an Australian murine rodent, the ash-grey mouse (Pseudomys albocinereus). COMPARATIVE BIOCHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY A-MOLECULAR & INTEGRATIVE PHYSIOLOGY, v. 163, n. 3-4, p. 336-342, NOV 2012. (07/02837-4)