Flaws and pitfalls in the chemical analysis of feathers: bad news-good news for avian chemoecology and toxicology
Flaws and pitfalls in the chemical analysis of feathers: bad news-good news for avian chemoecology and toxicology
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DOI：
10.1890/09-1473.1
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发表时间：
2010-09-01
影响因子：
5
通讯作者：
Bortolotti, Gary R.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bortolotti, Gary R.
生态学家经常使用生化分析作为传统研究手段难以探索的过程或现象的替代品。羽毛已经接受了大量的化学分析，以研究它们的元素组成，污染物和激素等。依赖于标准的方法，用浓度来表达化学物质的数量是有严重问题的，因为它通过忽视羽毛的生理学而产生了伪像。一些元素和化合物作为角蛋白的一部分被纳入羽毛中。然而，其他对羽毛功能不太重要的化学物质（但不一定对鸟类）进入发育中的细胞，与它们在血液中的丰度成比例;换句话说，羽毛只是容器，化学物质的沉积是时间依赖性的。在后一种情况下，一个适用于羽毛化学的大部分工作，以浓度表示的数据是毫无意义的，因为羽毛上不同的质量会以一种没有生物学意义的方式改变浓度。我讨论了这个问题和羽毛的化学分析中的各种陷阱，并提供解决方案，最终将提供一个更好地了解影响羽毛成分的机制，从而，生态模式和过程，他们打算研究。
Ecologists have frequently used biochemical assays as proxies for processes or phenomena too difficult to explore by traditional means of investigation. Feathers have been subjected to a number of chemical analyses to study such things as their elemental composition, contaminants, and hormones. The reliance on standard methodology of using concentrations to express quantities of chemical substances is seriously problematic because it creates artifacts by ignoring the physiology of feathers. Some elements and compounds are incorporated into the feather as part of the very building blocks of the keratin. However, others that are less functionally important to feathers (but not necessarily to the bird) enter the developing cells in proportion to their abundance in the bloodstream; in other words, feathers are merely receptacles, and deposition of chemicals is time dependent. In the latter case, one that applies to much of the work done on feather chemistry, data expressed as concentrations are meaningless because the varying mass across the feather alters concentrations in a way that has no biological significance. I discuss this problem and various pitfalls in the chemical analysis of feathers, and offer solutions that ultimately will offer a better understanding of the mechanisms influencing feather composition and, thus, the ecological patterns and processes they were meant to study.