No adverse effect of hibernation on reproduction and its physiological costs in edible dormouse females.

The data and code used in publication 'No adverse effect of hibernation on reproduction and its physiological costs in edible dormouse females.'Abstract: A cornerstone of the Life-History Theory is a trade-off between the use of survival-improving strategies, like hibernation, and investments in reproduction. We tested whether hibernation leads to trade-offs with reproduction, which can explain the evolution of the slow life-histories of hibernators. We allowed or prevented hibernation and subsequently reproduction in the long-living mammal, edible dormouse, and tested their effects on physiological markers of oxidative stress, relative telomere length, and immune function. Hibernation resulted in elongated telomeres in the heart and flexible immunological capacity, but did not affect oxidative status markers, with no hibernation×reproduction interaction. Hibernation did not affect the proportion of breeders to non-breeders, but resulted in increased litter mass. The only parameter measured prior to breeding, which was inversely related to litter size, was the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio. Irrespective of hibernation, we noted a tissue-dependent mitigation of lipid peroxidation (liver, kidney, muscle) and antioxidant up-regulation (liver), indicating oxidative shielding during reproduction in long-living organism. Our work is the first to experimentally prevent hibernation in a slow life-history species, showing that hibernators possess efficient, adaptive repair mechanisms that prevent the negative impact of hibernation on female reproductive performance, simultaneously allowing them to invest more in breeding success.