Data from: Chronic traffic noise increases food intake and alters gene expression associated with metabolism and disease in bats

Anthropogenic noise exposure has deleterious effects on the foraging
ecology of many animals. However, the effects of chronic anthropogenic
noise on food intake and health condition in wildlife remain largely
unknown. We tested whether traffic noise exposure over multiple days would
change food intake and would have effects on the health of Asian
particoloured bats. We broadcast traffic noise to the bats of two
noise-exposure groups (group A, 5 bats; group C, 6 bats) and broadcast
silence files to the bats of two control groups (group B, 5 bats; group D,
6 bats) for 12 days. We measured the changes in food intake, body weight,
and concentration of faecal triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) in
groups A and B. We compared the transcriptional profiles in brain, kidney
and liver tissues between bats in groups C and D. The bats exposed to
traffic noise had a significantly higher daily food intake and a
significantly greater body weight than bats in control group during the
period of playback. Faecal T3 and T4 were higher in the noise-exposure
group after playback had been on for more than one day. We found a total
of 169 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between noise-exposure and
control groups. Some DEGs related to stress response were up-regulated in
the bats exposed to noise. The 169 DEGs were mainly enriched in Gene
Ontology (GO) terms associated with metabolism, fundamental cellular
processes, stress response and immune response. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of
Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways affected by noise exposure were linked
with metabolism, disease, apoptosis, autophagy, phagosome and ribosome.
Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that bats exposed to
chronic traffic noise while roosting may need more energetic intake and
have a greater motivation to forage than others not exposed to noise,
probably as a result of a stress response. Furthermore, chronic traffic
noise may increase the risk of metabolic dysregulation, immune disorders,
and other diseases. Management measures for reducing noise disturbance,
for example, implementing sound barriers, are essential.