Data from: Unpredictability and adaptive responses to dietary variability in Japanese quail
Data files
Nov 03, 2025 version files 209.60 KB
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body_mass.xlsx
13.51 KB
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egg_mass_number.xlsx
16.78 KB
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feed_intake.xlsx
31.91 KB
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gene_expression.xlsx
18.35 KB
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pre_treatement_body_mass.xlsx
10.49 KB
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pre_treatment_intake.xlsx
15.94 KB
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R_script_for_data_anlysis_and_plotting.Rmd
96.87 KB
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README.md
5.76 KB
Abstract
Understanding animals' molecular mechanisms of adaptation to unpredictable changes in dietary availability provides insights into how organisms optimize resource utilisation and ensure survival under such conditions. The mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a candidate nutrient-sensing pathway underpinning a form of adaptive plasticity when individuals encounter constraints in their energy budget. We exposed adult Japanese quails (Coturnix japonica) of both sexes to three dietary conditions: daily unpredictable feeding, constant restriction, and full feeding for 16 days. Our study revealed that unpredictability reduced the body mass of female birds, whereas males remained unaffected. Egg production traits were not affected by unpredictable feeding. However, constant dietary restriction had a significant negative impact, suggesting resource reallocation to reproduction under unpredictable feeding conditions. We found sex-dependent gene expression patterns of mTOR pathway genes: while the unpredictable treatment did not affect gene expression in males, it downregulated MTOR and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF1) and its receptor (IGF1R), and upregulated Unc-51-like autophagy activating kinase-1 (ULK1) and autophagy-related genes (ATG9A, ATG5) in females. Additionally, variation in mTOR pathway gene expression was significantly associated with the effect of treatments on body mass and egg mass. Our study highlighted molecular mechanisms and adaptive responses towards dietary unpredictability and scarcity.
Reda GK, Ndunguru SF, Csernus B, Knop R, Szabó C, Czeglédi L, Lendvai ÁZ: Unpredictability and adaptive responses to dietary variability in Japanese quail
Description of the data and file structure
The data consist of a set of files, including (1) Body mass of birds, (2) Egg number and egg mass, (3) gene expression, (4) Feed intake, (5) Pre-tratment body mass, (6) Pre-treatment feed intake, (7) R code used to generate all analyses and figures.
Files and variables
File 1: body_mass.xlsx
Description: We exposed adult Japanese quails (Coturnix japonica) of both sexes to three dietary conditions: daily unpredictable feeding, 40% constant restriction, and full feeding for 16 days. We measured body mass at the beginning of the experiment (day 0) and on days 4, 8, and 16 of the treatment period using a digital scale (± 0.1 g). The unit of measurement was gram (g). The data contains 5 columns and 193 rows.
variables
- birdID: bird identification number.
- Treatment: different dietary regimens.
- Sex: male and female birds.
- Day; measurement day.
- Mass: body mass in grams.
- Control: full-fed group.
- UNPR: Unpredictably fed group.
- DR40; 40% restricted group.
File 2: egg_mass_number.xlsx
Description: We record egg-laying attendance and measure egg mass on a daily basis throughout the restriction period using a digital scale (± 0.01 g). The unit of measurement for egg mass was grams (g). Egg number was calculated from the number of records per bird in the restriction period. The data contains 4 columns and 409 rows.
variables
- birdID: bird identification number.
- Treatment: different dietary regimens.
- Day, recording day.
- egg_mass; egg mass in grams.
- Control: full-fed group.
- UNPR: Unpredictably fed group.
- DR40; 40% restricted group.
File 3: gene_expression.xlsx
Description: To analyse mRNA relative expression, we used real-time quantitative PCR using EvaGreen qPCR Mix (Solis BioDyne, Teaduspargi, Estonia) according to the manufacturer’s protocol.
Intron-spanning gene-specific primer pairs for quails were designed using Oligo7 software and obtained from Integrated DNA Technologies (BVBA-Leuven, Belgium).
Among the most frequently used reference genes in birds, we selected the best-performing reference gene, ribosomal protein L19 (RPL19), using NormFinder, BestKeepe,r, and deltaCt algorithms.
The 2−ΔΔCt method was employed to analyze the relative changes in mRNA expression of target genes (IGF1, IGF1R, FOXO1, mTOR, RPS6K1, 4EBP1, ULK1, ATG9A, and ATG5).
variables
- birdI:; bird identification number.
- Treatment: different dietary restriction levels.
- Sex: male and female birds.
- Tissue samples were collected from the liver and muscle.
- IGF1; insulin-like growth factor 1 gene expression.
- IGF1R; insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor gene expression.
- FOXO1; Forkhead box O1 gene expression.
- mTOR; mechanistic target of rapamycin gene expression.
- RPS6K1; ribosomal protein S6 kinase 1 gene expression.
- 4EBP1; eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E-binding protein 1 gene expression.
- ULK1: Unc-51-like autophagy activating kinase 1 gene expression.
- ATG9A; autophagy-related 9A gene expression.
- ATG5; autophagy-related 5 gene expression.
- Control: full-fed group.
- UNPR: Unpredictably fed group.
- DR40; 40% restricted group.
File 4: feed_intake.xlsx
Description: Each morning, immediately after the lights turned on, we removed the feeders before birds began eating, weighed the remaining food using a digital scale with a precision of ±0.01 g. Then the daily feed intake (g) was calculated by subtracting the remaining food from the given food.
variables
- birdID: bird identification number.
- Sex: male and female birds.
- Treatment: different dietary regimens.
- Day; measurement day.
- Intake: daily feed intake of individual birds in grams.
- Control: full-fed group.
- UNPR: Unpredictably fed group.
- DR40; 40% restricted group.
File 5: pre_treatement_body_mass.xlsx
Description: Prior to the application of actual treatment, the body mass of birds was measured during the immediate pre-treatment week. Body mass (g) was measured seven days and one day before the application of the experimental treatments, using a digital scale with a precision of ±0.1 g. This was used to assess if there is any body change.
variables
- birdI: bird identification number.
- Sex: male or female birds.
- Day: Days before the beginning of the application of the actual experiment.
- Mass: body mass in grams.
File 6: pre_treatment_intake.xlsx
Description: Quails were provided ad libitum access to feed and water during the seven days preceding the start of the experiment while housed individually in cages .
These data were collected to determine the appropriate dietary level for each bird according to its assigned treatment group. Feed intake was measured every morning using a digital scale with a precision of ±0.1 g, and values were recorded in grams.
variables
- birdID: bird identification number.
- Day; measurement day.
- Sex: male and female.
- Intake: daily feed intake of individual birds.
File 7: R_script_for_data_anlysis_and_plotting.Rmd
Description: R code used to generate all analyses and plotting figures is scripted in this file.
Code/software
Analyses were conducted in R (v4.5.1); the scripts in R_script_for_data_anlysis_and_plotting.Rmd reproduce all results.
Key packages included tidyverse, lme4/lmerTest, gamm4, aod, emmeans, ggplot2, ggcorrplot, multcompView, readxl, gridExtra, grid, factoextra, lavaan, and semPlot.