Abstract: The 46 kDa xylanase from the Antarctic microorganism Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis is an enzyme that efficiently catalyzes reactions at low temperatures. Here, the crystallization of both the native protein and the SeMet-substituted enzyme and data collection from both crystals using synchrotron radiation are described. The native data showed that the crystals diffract to 1.3 A resolution and belong to space group P212121, with unit-cell parameters a = 50.87, b = 90.51, c = 97.23 A. SAD data collected at the peak of the selenium absorption edge proved to be sufficient to determine the heavy-atom configuration and to obtain electron density of good quality.

Abstract: Altered body condition, increased incubation costs, and egg loss are important proximate factors modulating bird parental behavior, since they inform the adult about its remaining chances of survival or about the expected current reproductive success. Hormonal changes should reflect internal or external stimuli, since corticosterone levels (inducing nest abandonment) are known to increase while body condition deteriorates, and prolactin levels (stimulating incubation) decrease following egg predation. However, in a capital incubator that based its investment on available body reserves and naturally lost about half of its body mass during incubation, corticosterone should be maintained at a low threshold to avoid protein mobilization for energy supply. This study focused on the regulation of corticosterone and prolactin release in such birds during incubation, when facing egg manipulation (control, reduced, or increased) or a stressful event. Blood samples were taken before and after clutch manipulation and at hatching. Corticosterone levels were determined before and after 30 min of captivity. Female eiders exhibited a high hypothalamic?pituitary?adrenal sensitivity, plasma concentration of corticosterone being increased by four? to fivefold following 30 min of captivity. The adrenocortical response was not modified by body mass loss but was higher in birds for which clutch size was increased. In the same way, females did not show different prolactin levels among the experimental groups. However, when incubation started, prolactin levels were correlated to body mass, suggesting that nest attendance is programmed in relation to the female initial body condition. Moreover, due to an artifactual impact of bird manipulation, increased baseline corticosterone was associated with a prolactin decrease in the control group. These data suggest that, in eiders, body mass and clutch size modification can modulate prolactin and corticosterone levels, which cross?regulate each other in order to finely control incubation behavior.

Abstract: Rapid growth is of crucial importance for Adelie penguin chicks reared during the short Antarctic summer. It partly depends on the rapid ontogenesis of fat stores that are virtually null at hatching but then develop considerably (x40) within a month to constitute both an isolative layer against cold and an energy store to fuel thermogenic and growth processes. The present study was aimed at identifying by RT-PCR the major transcriptional events that chronologically underlie the morphological transformation of adipocyte precursors into mature adipocytes from hatching to 30 days of age. The peak expression of GATA binding protein 3, a marker of preadipocytes, at day 7 posthatch indicates a key proliferation step, possibly in relation to the expression of C/EBP{alpha} (C/EBP{alpha}). High plasma total 3,5,3'-triiodo-L-thyronine (T3) levels and high levels of growth hormone receptor transcripts at hatching suggested that growth hormone and T3 play early activating roles to favor proliferation of preadipocyte precursors. Differentiation and growth of preadipocytes may occur around day 15 in connection with increased abundance of transcripts encoding IGF-1, proliferator-activated receptor-{gamma}, and C/EBP{beta}, gradually leading to functional maturation of metabolic features of adipocytes including lipid uptake and storage (lipoprotein lipase, fatty-acid synthase) and late endocrine functions (adiponectin) by day 30. Present results show a close correlation between adipose tissue development and chick biology and a difference in the scheduled expression of regulatory factors controlling adipogenesis compared with in vitro studies using cell lines emphasizing the importance of in vivo approaches.

Abstract: King penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) may fast for up to 30 days during their breeding period. As such extended fasting may affect the relationship between the rate of O2 consumption (O2) and heart rate (fH), five male king penguins were exercised at various speeds on repeated occasions during a fasting period of 24-31 days. In addition, O2 and fH were measured in the same animals during rest in cold air and water (4{degrees}C). O2 and fH at rest and O2 during exercise decreased with fasting. There was a significant relation between O2 and fH (r2 = 0.56) that was improved by including speed, body mass (Mb), number of days fasting (t), and a cross term between fH and t (r2 = 0.92). It was concluded that there was a significant change in the O2-fH relationship with fasting during exercise. As t is measurable in the field and was shown to be significant and, therefore, a practical covariate, a regression equation for use when birds are ashore was obtained by removing speed and Mb. When this equation was used, predicted O2 was in good agreement with the observed data, with an overall error of 3.0%. There was no change in the O2-fH relationship in penguins at rest in water.