Metabolic response to cooling temperatures in chicken embryos and hatchlings after cold incubation

We asked to what extent cold exposure during embryonic growth, and the accompanying hypometabolism, may interfere with the normal development of thermogenesis. White Leghorn chicken eggs were incubated in control conditions (38 °C) or at 36 or 35 °C. Embryos incubated at a lower temperature (34 °C) failed to hatch. The cold-incubated embryos had lower oxygen consumption (V̇O2) and body weight (W) throughout incubation, and hatching was delayed by about, respectively, 1 and 2 days. The W-V̇O2 relationship of the cold-incubated embryos was as in controls, indicating that cold-induced hypometabolism was at the expense of the growth, not the maintenance, component of V̇O2. At embryonic day E11, the metabolic response to changes in ambient temperature (T) over the 30-39 °C range was typically poikilothermic, with Q10 = 1.8-1.9, and similar among all sets of embryos. Toward the end of incubation (E20), the thermogenic responses of the cold-incubated embryos were significantly lower than in controls. This difference occurred also in the few-hour old hatchlings (H1), even though, at this time, W was similar among groups. Exposure to cold during only the last 3 days of incubation (from E18 to H1), i.e. during the developmental onset of the endothermic mechanisms, did not lower the thermogenic capacity of the hatchlings. In conclusion, sustained cold-induced hypometabolism throughout incubation blunted the rate of embryonic growth and the development of thermogenesis. This latter phenomenon could be an example of epigenetic regulation, i.e. of environmental factors exerting a long-term effect on gene expression.