Meeting Abstract
In an age of global climate change, it is important to understand how organisms respond and adapt to changes in their environment. In temperate birds, the timing of reproduction and other physiological processes is synchronized to the perception of environmental cues, such as ambient temperature. Many species, including eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis), have responded to earlier, warmer springs by advancing the time of egg-laying. This is significant because reproductive timing in birds has major fitness consequences. Genes that modulate seasonal and circadian activities, such as breeding, are called clock genes. Previous studies have shown an association between clock gene polymorphisms and lay date in birds. We tested for associations between first lay date and genotype at four clock genes (Npas2, Adcyap1, Clock, and Creb1) in female eastern bluebirds sampled across a six-year period from a single population in Stillwater, Oklahoma. While our preliminary analysis did not find a significant effect of any of the candidate genes on lay date, we cannot rule out the possibility of an effect when populations that experience different temperature regimens are included. This is the first study to investigate the genetic correlates of reproductive timing in eastern bluebirds.
