Adaptive regulation of stopover refueling during bird migration: insights from whole blood transcriptomics

We used transcriptomic information from the whole blood of migrating Garden warblers (Sylvia borin) to identify key regulatory pathways related to adaptations for migration. Birds were temporarily caged during stopover and then sampled twice at different refuelling states (lean vs fat), reflecting different migratory stages (stopover arrival vs departure) after the crossing of an extended ecological barrier. Overall design: Ten migrating Garden warblers were captured during spring migration and then housed in individual cages in natural conditions for five days. Blood samples were collected from each bird twice, on the first and fifth day (shortly before migratory birds were released).