ArticleNature communications2018
No evidence that carotenoid pigments boost either immune or antioxidant defenses in a songbird.
Article in Nature communications, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 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
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1,932 citations in OpenAlex.
- Genetic Control of Tissue Remodeling by a Non-Coding SNP in ITGA8 Explains Carotenoid-Based Color Polymorphism in Marine Mollusks.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Forelimb stripe coloration signals age, but not physiological health, in painted turtles.Behavioral ecology and sociobiology · 2026Article
- Biochemical and Genomic Underpinnings of Carotenoid Colour Variation Across a Hybrid Zone Between South Asian Flameback Woodpeckers.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- A high-lipid diet leads to greater pathology and lower tolerance during infection.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- The carotenoid redshift: Physical basis and implications for visual signaling.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Article
- Oxidative physiology is weakly associated with pigmentation in birds.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- The impact of life stage and pigment source on the evolution of novel warning signal traits.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2022Article
- Blood Toxic Elements and Effects on Plasma Vitamins and Carotenoids in Two Wild Bird Species:Toxics · 2021Article
- Microstructures amplify carotenoid plumage signals in tanagers.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Evidence for hybrid breakdown in production of red carotenoids in the marine invertebrate Tigriopus californicus.PloS one · 2021Article
- Androgen Elevation Accelerates Reproductive Senescence in Three-Spined Stickleback.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Article
- Testosterone regulatesProceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Adaptation of the master antioxidant response connects metabolism, lifespan and feather development pathways in birds.Nature communications · 2020Article
- Origin of the natural variation in the storage of dietary carotenoids in freshwater amphipod crustaceans.PloS one · 2020Article
- Red carotenoids and associated gene expression explain colour variation in frillneck lizards.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Overexpression of an antioxidant enzyme improves male mating performance after stress in a lek-mating fruit fly.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Defense against predators incurs high reproductive costs for the aposematic mothBehavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Dietary carotenoids have been proposed to boost immune system and antioxidant functions in vertebrate animals, but studies aimed at testing these physiological functions of carotenoids have often failed to find support. Here we subject yellow canaries (Serinus canaria), which possess high levels of carotenoids in their tissue, and white recessive canaries, which possess a knockdown mutation that results in very low levels of tissue carotenoids, to oxidative and pathogen challenges. Across diverse measures of physiological performance, we detect no differences between carotenoid-rich yellow and carotenoid-deficient white canaries. These results add further challenge to the assumption that carotenoids are directly involved in supporting physiological function in vertebrate animals. While some dietary carotenoids provide indirect benefits as retinoid precursors, our observations suggest that carotenoids themselves may play little to no direct role in key physiological processes in birds.
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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.