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Articles

Day Length Has a Major Effect on the Response of Protein Synthesis Rates to Feeding in Growing Japanese Quail¹

Polly Boon^*2, Peter W. Watt, Kenneth Smith and G. Henk Visser^*,

^* Zoological Laboratory, University of Groningen, Haren, the Netherlands; Department of Anatomy and Physiology, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom and Centre for Isotope Research, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands

²To whom correspondence should be addressed at RIKILT, P.O. Box 230, 6708 PD Wageningen, the Netherlands. E-mail: p.e.boon{at}rikilt.wag-ur.nl

We investigated the effect of day length on mixed protein fractional synthesis rates (K_S) in 14- and 21-d-old Japanese quail (Coturnix c. japonica) habituated to either a long day length, 18 h light/6 h dark (LDL), or short day length, 6 h light/18 h dark (SDL), with free access to food during the light period. Rates of protein synthesis were measured by a flooding dose of L-[1-¹³C]leucine. In both groups, we measured K_S of pectoral muscle, liver and heart after an overnight period of food deprivation and after 2-h food access at dawn. Rates of protein synthesis were also measured in LDL quail starved for 18 h and refed for 2 h. SDL chicks were smaller and had lower tissue weights at 2 wk of age than did LDL chicks (P < 0.05). Starvation led to a lower rate of protein synthesis in those animals starved for 18 h. Food availability after starvation for 18 h induced a significant rise in tissue protein synthesis in both SDL and LDL quail (P < 0.05). This increase was absent in LDL quail after a 6-h starvation period. There was an increase in K_S to ad hoc changes in food supply. By determining the daily period in which feeding can occur, day length has a major effect on protein synthesis rates. This effect will determine the overall growth chicks are able to achieve that have been subjected to different day lengths.

KEY WORDS: • stable isotopes • protein synthesis • feeding • starvation • birds