Melatonin secretion during postnatal development in wild and domestic female lambs

This study examines the patterns of melatonin secretion during postnatal development in wild (mouflon; n = 7) and domestic (Spanish Merino; n = 6) female lambs under their natural photoperiod conditions. The aim was to determine whether these types of sheep which differ in the timing of puberty, also differ in the establishment of daily melatonin secretory rhythms and/or in the nocturnal plasma melatonin secretion. In addition, the time when the lambs first reached nocturnal levels of melatonin similar to adults was also evaluated. For this purpose, the melatonin secretion in lambs was compared with those of their mothers. A day/night (D/N) difference in plasma melatonin concentration was noticed as early as 1 day after birth in the Merino female lambs (D: 5.9 +/- 1.0 pg/ml compared to N: 22.0 +/- 3.3 pg/ml; p < 0.05), and by 1 week after birth in the mouflon female lambs (D: 4.9 +/- 0.3 pg/ml compared to N: 56.9 +/- 15.3 pg/ml; p < 0.05). An effect of the genotype (p < 0.05) and age (p < 0.01) was detected on mean nocturnal plasma melatonin concentrations, which were lower in the Merino than in the mouflon lambs. Night-time plasma concentration of melatonin was also high in mouflon than in Merino mothers (p < 0.05). No differences were detected between the wild genotype and the domestic one in the time when the lambs first reached nocturnal levels of melatonin similar to those of their mothers.