Early life adverse conditions can have major consequences on an individual’s life history traits. Oxidative stress has been hypothesized to be one main mechanism underlying the negative consequences of early life adverse conditions. To test this hypothesis, we restricted the food availability of Seba’s short-tailed bat (Carollia perspicillata) mothers of unweaned pups for 10 days, followed by ad libitum provisioning. We also had a control, unrestricted group. We explored the morphological consequences of dietary restriction during early life by measuring growth rate. We also measured four markers of blood oxidative balance during growth. We assessed the level of cortisol, and its inactive form cortisone, in the hair of the pups at the end of growth. Finally, we monitored survival during the first year. Food restriction triggered a slowdown in growth followed by catch-up growth when ad libitum feeding was restored which did not lead to full compensation in size or mass compared to control individuals. We found that higher growth rate was associated with elevated oxidative damage, suggesting an oxidative cost to growth. However, we found no clear evidence for physiological costs specific to the catch-up growth. Survival after a year was not impacted by the treatment, the oxidative balance or the level of glucocorticoids at the end of growth. In conclusion, our results show that individuals were able to efficiently mitigate the short-term consequences of adverse early life conditions. However, consequences might arise in the long-term, and could impact reproductive success or lifespan.

中文翻译：

---

蝙蝠早期生活中饮食限制的形态和生理后果

早期生活中的不利条件会对个人的生活史特征产生重大影响。氧化应激被认为是导致早期生活不利条件负面影响的主要机制之一。为了验证这一假设，我们将Seba的断奶幼仔的短尾蝙蝠（Carollia perspicillata）母亲的食物供应限制了10天，然后随意提供食物。我们还有一个不受限制的对照组。通过测量生长速率，我们探索了早期饮食限制的形态学后果。我们还测量了生长过程中血液氧化平衡的四个标志。在生长结束时，我们评估了幼犬头发中皮质醇的水平及其非活性形式的可的松。最后，我们监测了第一年的生存情况。限制进食后，食物限制导致生长减慢，随后追赶生长，与对照组相比，这并未导致大小或质量的完全补偿。我们发现较高的生长速率与较高的氧化损伤相关，表明生长的氧化成本。但是，我们没有找到明确的证据来证明特定的追赶性生长所需的生理成本。一年后的存活不受治疗，生长结束时的氧化平衡或糖皮质激素水平的影响。总之，我们的结果表明，个体能够有效缓解不良早期生活条件的短期后果。但是，后果可能会长期产生，并可能影响生殖成功或寿命。