The capacity of small mammals sustaining periods of food shortage largely depends on the adaptive regulation of energy metabolism in response to the decrease of food supply.In addition to food availability, ambient temperature (Ta) is an important factor affecting the rates of both energy intake and consumption.To examine the effect of warm temperature on energy strategy and the capacity to sustain food shortage, body mass, energy consumption and some other physiological indexes were measured.The result showed that warm exposure had no effect on body mass but decreased energy intake, resting metabolic rate (RMR) and non-shivering thermogenesis (NST).The content of mitochondria protein (MP) and uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) in brown adipose tissue (BAT) were significantly lower than in normal temperature group.Restricted food had a significant effect on the body weight of the feathered vesicles but had no effect on RMR, NST, MP and UCP1 content.All of the results suggested reducing the metabolic rate and heat production at high temperature conditions can increase its viability with food shortage, which indicated that warm acclimation plays an important role in adaptive body mass regulation in response to the variations of food availability.%指出了小型哺乳动物在食物缺乏的条件下往往会调节其能量代谢来适应这一环境条件.除了食物资源的影响以外,温度也会影响动物的能量摄入和消耗.为了阐明高温和食物限制对大绒鼠能量代谢的影响,对大绒鼠的体重、食物摄入量、能量消耗和一些其它生理指标进行了测定.结果表明:高温对于大绒鼠的体重没有影响,但降低了大绒鼠食物摄入量、静止代谢率和非颤抖性产热;褐色脂肪组织中的线粒体蛋白和解偶联蛋白1含量高温组显著低于常温组;限食对大绒鼠的体重影响显著,但是对代谢率、线粒体蛋白和解偶联蛋白1含量没有影响.以上结果说明大绒鼠在高温条件下降低代谢率和产热可以增加其在食物限制的情况下的生存能力,暗示着在食物利用变化的情况下高温可能对于大绒鼠的体重调节起着非常重要的作用.
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