The Impact Of Ambient Temperature On Energy Consumption And The Stage Expression Of Gene Combined By Fatty Acid During Hibernation In Daurian Ground Squirrel

Temperature has a great impact on hibernation patterns and energy consumption formammal. The research object is Daurian ground squirrel.During hibernation, theambient temperature by manual control is respectively5±2℃，15±2℃，25±2℃.Under the three different ambient temperature, hibernation patterns and energyconsumption under winter in Daurian ground squirrels are measured. We determinegene expression of unsaturated fatty acids during hibernation in Daurian groundsquirrels and analysis the function meaning. The main results are as follows:1. Under different ambient temperature, hibernation patterns in Daurian groundsquirrels is different. When ambient temperature is5℃, Daurian ground squirrelsare in deep hibernation bouts and hibernation pattern is deep hibernation. At15℃,75percent of Daurian ground squirrels is deep hibernation and25percent ofthem shows short hibernation. At25℃,87.5percent of Daurian ground squirrelsis short hibernation and12.5percent of them is no hibernation. That indicateshibernation pattern is different under different ambient temperature in Daurianground squirrels. High temperature reduces the expression of hibernation.2. When ambient temperature is at5±2℃,15±2℃and25±2℃, the length ofhibernation season in Daurian ground squirrels is respectively168.33±6.17d,146.75±11.45d and88.38±10.39d. The difference is significant（F（2，22）=19.431,P=0.00<0.01）. The length of three consecutive longest hibernation isrespectively27.4±3.3d，15.3±1.2d and3.88±0.58d, and the difference issignifican（tF（2，22）=28.838，P=0.00<0.01）. These results suggest that the lengthof hibernation season and hibernation bouts are both shorten and the expression of hibernation is decrease following the increasing ambient temperature.3. At5±2℃,15±2℃and25±2℃, total energy consumption of hibernation seasonin Daurian ground squirrels is respectively3722±217.82kJ，18907±2895.07kJand30542±2146.40kJ, the difference is significant （F（2，22）=45.198，P=0.00<0.01）. The amount of intake food is respectively38.00±5.46g，557.70±104.20g and913.59±60.45g，the difference is significant（F（2，22）=42.525， P=0.00<0.01）. However, the fat consumption of animals isrespectively83.16±6.38g，85.63±15.21g and123.55±13.55g. The fatconsumption at25℃is significantly higher than it at5℃（P=0.025<0.05）and15℃（P=0.039<0.05）. These show the energy consumption of hibernationseason in Daurian ground squirrels is addition along with the increasing ambienttemperature. These energy derive from body fat stored in animals and foodintake.4. The expression of enzymes which control the combine of unsaturated fatty acidDHA and EPA increases significantly during hibernation. It suggest that thesynthesis of unsaturated fatty acid mentioned above increases during hibernation.These unsaturated fatty acid can increase the cellmembrane activity and bloodfluidity. That is conducive to the maintenance of cell function duringhibernation.