Control of torpor and body weight patterns by a seasonal timer in Siberian hamsters

Two experiments were designed to assess whether the short-day-induced patterns of shallow daily torpor, body weight, and other seasonal responses (food intake and pelage pigmentation) exhibited by Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus sungorus) are under the control of a "seasonal timekeeping mechanism" that is independent of reproductive status [testosterone, (T)]. We examined whether the patterning and expression of these seasonal responses were altered by decreases in serum T that accompany gonadal regression during the first 8 wk of short-day exposure (i.e., the "preparatory phase" of the torpor season) or by experimental increases in serum T after this phase. Short-day-housed, castrated hamsters bearing T implants had long-day levels of the hormone and did not exhibit torpor. Appropriate seasonal patterns and levels of torpor, body weight, pelage color stage, and food intake were exhibited after T implant removal although serum T was clamped to long-day levels during the preparatory phase. In animals that were gonad intact during the preparatory phase and were subsequently castrated and given T implants, torpor did not occur as long as the implants were in place. However, the patterns and levels of daily torpor, food intake, and body weight rapidly returned to appropriate seasonal values compared with the castrated, blank-implanted controls on T implant removal; these effects occurred whether the T implants were removed when torpor frequency was increasing, at its peak, or decreasing across the torpor season. T did not affect pelage color stage under any condition.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)