Cross-fostering of the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii) pouch young accelerates fore-stomach maturation

Abstract

There are two phases of fore-stomach development during the first 200 days of pouch life in tammar wallaby. For the first 170 days, the mucosa displays an immature gastric glandular phenotype that changes to a cardia glandular phenotype, which remains for the rest of the animal's life. During this 200-day period after birth, the pouch young (PY) is dependent on maternal milk, which progressively changes in composition. We showed previously that PY cross-fostered to host mothers at a later stage of lactation accelerated development. In this study, we investigated whether cross-fostering and exposure to late lactation stage milk affected the transition to cardia glandular phenotype. In fostere..