Publication Type: | Journal Article |
Year of Publication: | 1994 |
Authors: | Malcarney, HL, del Rio, CMartínez, Apanius, V |
Journal: | The Auk |
Volume: | 111 |
Issue: | 1 |
Date Published: | 1994 |
ISBN Number: | 00048038 |
Keywords: | Dumetella, Dumetella carolinensis, Galeoscoptes, Galeoscoptes carolinensis, Hylopsar, Hylopsar purpureiceps, Lamprotornis, Lamprotornis purpureiceps, Mimidae, Sturnidae, Sturnus, Sturnus vulgaris |
Abstract: | Gray Catbirds (Dumetella carolinensis, Mimidae) and Purple-headed Glossy-Starlings (Lamprotornis purpureiceps, Sturnidae) showed depressed ingestion and increased fecal sugar contents when shifted from glucose and fructose to sucrose solutions. These species also exhibited no increases in plasma glucose after ingestion of sucrose, but an increase in plasma glucose after ingestion of equicaloric doses of a mixture of glucose and fructose. In vitro measurements of intestinal disaccharidase activities in D. carolinensis revealed insignificant sucrase activity, and low levels of maltase activities. These results support the hypothesis that sucrose intolerance is a shared-derived character of the monophyletic lineage that includes starlings, mimids, and thrushes, and indicate that sucrose intolerance in birds can be easily diagnosed with a combination of behavioral and nonlethal physiological measurements. We suggest that, in birds, low intestinal maltase activity is correlated with the lack of sucrase activity. We further hypothesize that sucrose-intolerant birds are poor at assimilating complex carbohydrates. |
URL: | http://www.jstor.org/stable/4088515 |
Short Title: | The Auk |
Taxonomic name: