Fat body cycling and experimental evidence for its adaptive significance to ovarian follicle development in the lizardUta stansburiana
✍ Scribed by Hahn, William E. ;Tinkle, Donald W.
- Book ID
- 102891619
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1965
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 572 KB
- Volume
- 158
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0022-104X
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The annual fat body cycle in the lizard Uta stansburiana is associated with reproduction. In females fat bodies decline in late winter and early spring when deutoplasm is deposited in the ovarian follicles. Males have a similar fat cycle, but fat bodies are much smaller. Ovariectomy eliminated rapid lipid mobilization from the fat bodies which occurs in sham operated controls. Fat body removal from early estrus females induces high incidence of follicular atresia and retards the rate of yolk deposition. Follicular growth is delayed or inhibited if fat bodies are excised from preestrus animals. The amount of extractable lipid in the pre-estrus fat body is nearly equivalent to the lipid in a typical egg clutch. The adaptive value of the fat bodies is apparently associated with the formation of the first egg clutch which in accordance with population studies is the most important clutch.