Southwest Mountain Ecosystem of Yunnan Province Higher Institutes College, School of Life
Science of Yunnan Normal University, Kunming; 650500, China
To investigate the relationship between the energy strategy in response to different food restriction levels, body mass, resting metabolic rate (RMR), nonshivering thermogenesis (NST) and cytochrome c oxidase (COX) activity were measured in Apodemus chevrieri. The results showed that RMR, NST and COX activity were significantly decreased in restricted to 90% of ad libitum food intake, but survival rate was 40% in A. chevrieri restricted to 60% of ad libitum food intake. All of the results suggests that A. chevrieri decreased BMR under food restriction, providing a support for the “metabolism switch hypothesis”.
Keywords: Apodemus chevrieri; Body mass; Food restriction