Adult chickens employ endothermy – internal generation of heat that maintains a constant body temperature (Tb). Prior to hatching, chicken embryos are ectothermic - controlling Tb by external heat sources. Upon hatching, the hatchling transitions from an ectotherm to an endotherm that has been shown to be delayed by hypoxia. In this study, whole animal oxygen consumption () and liver, heart, and skeletal muscle citrate synthase activity (CSA) and were measured during this transition to endothermy in chickens incubated in normoxia and hypoxia (15% O2). The only significant differences in occurred in 48 hour old hatchlings where was lower in normoxic hatchlings. There were no differences in CS activity between age and incubation oxygen levels. Additionally, preliminary 2-D protein gels of embryo and hatchling liver show changes in the proteome upon hatching. Results suggest that hypoxia had no significant effect on CSA and a minimal effect on .

An avian embryo is ectothermic, with body temperature determined by environmental temperature. Upon hatching, the neonate begins a conversion so that endothermic capacity becomes feasible and body temperature becomes independent of environment. Whole animal metabolic rate and ventilation response, cardiovascular development, and maturation of muscle mitochondrial flux were the focus of this dissertation because of the direct role in shivering thermogenesis. Precocial ducks and altricial Double-crested Cormorants exhibit increasing hematocrit and disproportionate increases in fractional heart mass resulting in greater oxygen delivery capacity and increased capacity of muscles to utilize oxygen compared with ectothermic American Alligator and Common Snapping turtles. By selecting for faster growth and higher meat yield in the domestic chicken, differences in whole-animal, tissue, cellular, and regulatory responses are evident between broiler and layer type birds. In the altricial red-winged blackbird, despite appearance of a whole animal endothermic response sometime after 7 dph, capacity of skeletal muscles involved in shivering thermogenesis peaks prior to that time. Thus, full development of endothermy is delayed in this species, allowing the altricial nestling to allocate energy towards growth rather than metabolic maintenance. Hypothyroidism in neonate red-winged blackbirds results in delayed maturation of the cardiovascular system and mitochondrial oxidative capacity of skeletal muscle. Such deficiencies were quickly recovered once the animals returned to a normothyroid state, apparently at the cost of increasing body mass. Insights into onset of thermoregulation provide a more thorough understanding of metabolic and physical transitions a hatchling bird must undergo to reach the adult endothermic phenotype. Endothermic capacity will continue to be at the forefront of physiological research because of the significance of changes between the energetic relations of an animal that must occur with its environment.

As chickens hatch, there is a rapid change in their physiology and metabolism associated with attaining endothermy. It is thought that thyroid hormones (TH) play a major role in regulating developmental changes at hatching. In birds, TH regulates skeletal muscle growth, which has a direct impact on the chick's ability to thermoregulate via shivering thermogenesis. To better understand the role of TH in the timing of hatching, development of thermogenic capacity, and metabolic rate, we manipulated plasma TH levels in chicken embryos beginning at 85% development (day 17 of a 21 day incubation) with either thyroperoxidase inhibitor methimazole (MMI) or supplemental triiodothyronine (T3). After TH manipulation, we characterized O2 consumption and body temperature in the thermal neutral zone and during gradual cooling. Externally pipped embryos and 1 day post hatch (dph) chicks were cooled from 35 to 15°C. Manipulation of TH altered the timing of hatching, accelerating hatching under hyperthyroid conditions and decelerating hatching with hypothyroid conditions. Cohen's d revealed a large effect size on body temperature (Tb) of EP embryos of hypothyroid animals when compared to euthyroid animals in environmental temperatures of 32°C to 15°C, which was not seen in 1dph animals. Hyperthyroid EP animals were able to maintain metabolic rate over a wider range of ambient temperatures compared to control and hypothyroid animals, but these differences disappeared in 1dph animals. Here, we find that elevating TH levels prior to hatching accelerated hatching and the animal's thermogeneic ability to respond to cooling, but these differences disappear with age.

Les thérapsides se diversifient au cours du Permien et du Trias partout à la surface de la Pangée mais sans être épargné par la crise de la fin du Permien, extinction de masse la plus meurtrière de tous les temps. Ils représentent un groupe de transition entre les reptiles permiens et les premiers mammifères et sont le centre de plusieurs questions lié aux différences entre ces deux grands groupes. Cette thèse s'intéresse à la question de l'apparition et du développement de l'endothermie dans ce groupe, ainsi que les conditions environnementales présentes à cette époque. Pour répondre à ces questions, plusieurs espèces, provenant des grands groupes de vertébrés de l'époque (thérapsides, diapsides, parareptiles, stéréospondyles et dipneustes) ont été analysés pour leurs compositions en isotopes de l'oxygène et du carbone.Ces données ont permis de montrer que l'endothermie serait apparu au moins dans le groupe des Kannemeyeriiformes + Lystrosauridae ainsi que dans le groupe des Eucynodontia, deux lignés de thérapsides, la seconde ayant donnée les mammifères actuels. Temporellement, ces deux mises en place de l'endothermie se sont produites dans un intervalle de temps autour de la limite Permo-Trias, certainement avant celle-ci pour le groupe Kannemeyeriiformes + Lystrosauridae. Ce qu'il se passe climatiquement à cette période a été déterminé avec des espèces provenant exclusivement du bassin du Karoo en Afrique du Sud. D'après les résultats, à la fois les variations des isotopes de l'oxygène et du carbone se corrèlent avec celles observées dans le milieu marin et les valeurs obtenues à partir de matériel continental est tout autant pertinent à utiliser que celles provenant de matériel marin.Ces données appuient l'hypothèse d'un intense réchauffement et le quantifient à environ +16 °C au moment de la crise puis continua d'augmenter pendant le Trias Inférieur.Bien que les données ne permettent pas de le prouver, il est possible que l'endothermie ait permis à ces groupes de survivre ces variations de températures et de pouvoir se rediversifier par la suite / Therapsids diversified during the Permian and the Triassic all around the world on the supercontinent, Pangea, where they were not spared by the end-Permian crisis, the most destructive mass extinction of all time. The represent a transitional group between the Permian reptiles and the first mammals, and therefore are in the middle of several questions link to the difference between those two groups. This thesis focuses on the question of the emergence and development of the endothermy within this group, and the climate conditions of this period. To answer those questions, several species from the different groups of vertebrates (therapsids, diapsids, parareptiles, stereosponyls and lungfish) have been analyzed for their oxygen and carbon isotopes compositions.Such data showed that the endothermy seemed to appear within the group of Kannemeyeriiformes + Lystrosauridae as well as the Eucynodontia group, two therapsids groups with the latter being the ancestors of the extant mammals. Those two emergences of the endothermy occurred within a small timespan around the Permo-Triassic boundary, much more certainly before for the Kannemeyeriiformes + Lystrosauridae. What happened during this short period has been estimated with species from the Karoo Basin in South Africa only.According to the results, both variations in oxygen and carbon isotopes fit with those observed in marine data and therefore, values from continental material can be used, same as marine material.Those data support the hypothesis of an intense warming and quantify it to +16 °C during the end-Permian crisis and continue to increase during the Lower Permian.Even if the data don’t allow proving it, it is possible that the endothermy made those groups able to survive through such temperature variations and to diversify after

Achievement of endothernic capacity is vital for independence from ambient temperature changes, sustained activity, optimal biochemical reactions and optimization of parental care. During early avian development, the core tenets of transition from ectothermy to endothermy are development of metabolic capacity (oxygen consumption, mitochondrial bioenergetics), enhanced cardiovascular function (heart rate and cardiac output), pulmonary ventilation and thermogenic capacity. Thyroid hormones, particularly T3, are key metabolic regulators of basal metabolism, thermogenesis, pulmonary ventilation and mitochondrial respiration. Thyroid hormone fluctuation patterns during both precocial and altricial avian endothermic transition suggest a prominent role in maturation of endothermy, cardiovascular, respiratory and skeletal muscle physiology. This body of work explores effects of T3 manipulations in two avian species: the precocial Pekin duck and the altricial Red-winged Blackbird. Increased plasma T3 during late incubation resulted in increased cardiac mass, elevated resting and intrinsic heart rate, intrinsic mean arterial pressure, increased cholinergic tone and blunted alpha-adrenergic tone in the precocial Pekin duck. In both Pekin duck and Red-winged blackbird, plasma T3 levels correlated with changes in the trajectory of endothermic ontogeny, systemic oxygen consumption, thermogenesis, maturation of pulmonary ventilatory function, altered growth and effects on skeletal and cardiac mitochondrial bioenergetics. These observations support the role of thyroid hormones as metabolic and developmental regulators at the time of attainment of endothermy during the perinatal period in precocial and altricial avian species. Insights into the role of thyroid hormone as a metabolic and development regulator at the time of avian endothermic attainment provide a more thorough understanding of metabolic and physical transitions a hatchling bird must undergo to reach the adult endothermic phenotype. Such insights also deepen understanding of the complex role thyroid hormones play in homeostasis and offer implications about the evolutionary history of endothermic capacity.