Dietary carotenoid supplementation facilitates egg laying in a wild passerine Universiteit Antwerpen
Wendt Müller, Jorge García-Campa, Sonia González-Braojos, Emilio García-Juárez, Judith Morales
During egg laying, females face a trade-off between self-maintenance and investment into current reproduction, since providing eggs with resources is energetically demanding, in particular if females lay one egg per day. However, the costs of egg laying not only relate to energetic requirements, but also depend on the availability of specific resources that are vital for egg production and embryonic development. One of these compounds are carotenoids, pigments with immuno-stimulatory properties, which are crucial during embryonic development. In this study, we explore how carotenoid ...