Glucocorticoid reaction norms across diverse life history stages using a comparative approach

Animals differ in their strategies of how “fast” or “slow” they go through different stages of their life cycle. The aim of this challenging project is to understand differences in how glucocorticoids are regulated before and during reproduction in vertebrates with a different pace of life. One of the main hypotheses I am testing is whether an upregulation of glucocorticoids before reproduction observed in some species can prime the organism to cope with challenges that will be experienced during reproduction. This work is conducted in collaboration with the HormoneBase consortium.