Dynamic metabolic and molecular changes during seasonal shrinking in Sorex araneus
- William R. Thomas1,
- Cecilia Baldoni2,3,
- Yuanyuan Zeng4,
- David Carlson1,
- Julie Holm-Jacobsen4,
- Marion Muturi2,
- Dominik von Elverfeldt5,
- Tue B. Bennike4,
- Dina K.N. Dechmann2,3,
- John Nieland4,
- Angelique P. Corthals6,9 and
- Liliana M. Dávalos1,7,8,9
- 1Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA;
- 2Max-Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Radolfzell 78315, Germany;
- 3University of Konstanz, Konstanz 78464, Germany;
- 4Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Gistrup 9260, Denmark;
- 5Division of Medical Physics, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg 79106, Germany;
- 6John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, New York 10019, USA;
- 7Institute for Advanced Computational Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA;
- 8Consortium for Inter-Disciplinary Environmental Research, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA
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↵9 These authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract
To meet the challenge of wintering in place, many high-latitude small mammals reduce energy demands through hibernation. In contrast, short-lived Eurasian common shrews, Sorex araneus, remain active and shrink, including energy-intensive organs in winter, regrowing in spring in an evolved strategy called Dehnel's phenomenon. How this size change is linked to metabolic and regulatory changes to sustain their high metabolism is unknown. Here, we analyze metabolic, proteomic, and gene expression profiles spanning the entirety of Dehnel's seasonal cycle in wild shrews. We show regulatory changes to oxidative phosphorylation and increased fatty acid metabolism during autumn-to-winter shrinkage, as previously found in hibernating species. But in shrews, we also find upregulated winter expression of genes involved in gluconeogenesis: the biosynthesis of glucose from noncarbohydrate substrates. Coexpression models reveal changes in size and metabolic gene expression coordinated via FOXO signaling, whose overexpression reduces size and extends life span in many model organisms. We propose that although shifts in gluconeogenesis meet the challenge posed by high metabolic rate and active winter lifestyle, FOXO signaling is central to Dehnel's phenomenon, with spring downregulation limiting life span in these shrews.
Footnotes
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[Supplemental material is available for this article.]
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Article published online before print. Article, supplemental material, and publication date are at https://www.genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.280639.125.
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Freely available online through the Genome Research Open Access option.
- Received March 10, 2025.
- Accepted October 29, 2025.
This article, published in Genome Research, is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
