Carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur diet–tissue discrimination in mouse tissues

Abstract

Stable-isotope ratios are increasingly being used to examine ecological questions pertaining to dietary choices, physiological status, and animal migration. It has been shown that animal tissues reflect the isotopic signature present in food, altered by a small reproducible fractionation value. The average diet–tissue discrimination for δ13C and δ15N is approximately 1‰ and 3‰, respectively, although the degree of diet–tissue discrimination may be affected by a range of factors and vary between organisms and tissue types. Although the average δ34S is approximately zero, the sulfur diet–tissue discrimination values have only been determined for a few organisms. It is necessary to determine accurate diet–tissue discrimination values between tissue and dietary components to have confidence in any food-web study or determination of diet quality. In this paper, we determine carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur diet–tissue discrimination values for whole blood, liver, skeletal muscle, heart, brain, and fat (carbon only) from adult mice (Mus musculus L., 1758) equilibrated on three diets with unique isotopic signatures for carbohydrate carbon and for protein carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur. These data will aid researchers in choosing tissues to be used to examine food-web changes over time.