ArticleOecologia2017
Gyrfalcons Falco rusticolus adjust CTNS expression to food abundance: a possible contribution to cysteine homeostasis.
Article in Oecologia, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Review
- Inhibition of Tyrosinase and Melanogenesis by Carboxylic Acids: Mechanistic Insights and Safety Evaluation.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Pheomelanin synthesis varies with protein food abundance in developing goshawks.Journal of comparative physiology. B, Biochemical, systemic, and environmental physiology · 2019Article
- Condition-dependence of pheomelanin-based coloration in nuthatches Sitta europaea suggests a detoxifying function: implications for the evolution of juvenile plumage patterns.Scientific reports · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Melanins form the basis of animal pigmentation. When the sulphurated form of melanin, termed pheomelanin, is synthesized, the sulfhydryl group of cysteine is incorporated to the pigment structure. This may constrain physiological performance because it consumes the most important intracellular antioxidant (i.e., glutathione, GSH), of which cysteine is a constitutive amino acid. However, this may also help avoid excess cysteine, which is toxic. Pheomelanin synthesis is regulated by several genes, some of them exerting this regulation by controlling the transport of cysteine in melanocytes. We investigated the possibility that these genes are epigenetically labile regarding protein intake and thus contribute to cysteine homeostasis. We found in the Icelandic population of gyrfalcon Falco rusticolus, a species that pigments its plumage with pheomelanin, that the expression of a gene regulating the export of cystine out of melanosomes (CTNS) in feather melanocytes of developing nestlings increases with food abundance in the breeding territories where they were reared. The expression of other genes regulating pheomelanin synthesis by different mechanisms of influence on cysteine availability (Slc7a11 and Slc45a2) or by other processes (MC1R and AGRP) was not affected by food abundance. As the gyrfalcon is a strict carnivore and variation in food abundance mainly reflects variation in protein intake, we suggest that epigenetic lability in CTNS has evolved in some species because of its potential benefits contributing to cysteine homeostasis. Potential applications of our results should now be investigated in the context of renal failure and other disorders associated with cystinosis caused by CTNS dysfunction.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.