Benefits and costs of parental care

Alonso‐Álvarez, Carlos; Velando, Alberto

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199692576.003.0003

Cited by 117 publications

(113 citation statements)

References 152 publications

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“…For example, in a dung beetle, developing larvae depend on nutrients provided by their parents which affects male body and horn size and thereby their mating success [93]. In some cases the diet or conditions that parents’ experience is transmitted to their own offspring (i.e., transgenerational effects: [1, 96, 97]), and can thereby affect their mating success. For example, in birds the amount of carotenoids available to mothers influences what they can deposit into egg yolks, which can then affect their sons’ adult ornamental coloration [98].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are sexually selected traits affected by a poor environment early in life?

2016

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BackgroundChallenging conditions experienced early in life, such as a restricted diet, can detrimentally affect key life-history traits. Individuals can reduce these costs by delaying their sexual maturation, albeit at the price of the later onset of breeding, to eventually reach the same adult size as individuals that grow up in a benevolent environment. Delayed maturation can, however, still lead to other detrimental morphological and physiological changes that become apparent later in adulthood (e.g. shorter lifespan, faster senescence). In general, research focuses on the naturally selected costs of a poor early diet. In mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki), males with limited food intake early in life delay maturation to reach a similar adult body size to their well-fed counterparts (‘catch-up growth’). Here we tested whether a poor early diet is costly due to the reduced expression of sexually selected male characters, namely genital size and ejaculate traits.ResultsWe found that a male’s diet early in life significantly influenced his sperm reserves and sperm replenishment rate. Shortly after maturation males with a restricted early diet had significantly lower sperm reserves and slower replenishment rates than control diet males, but this dietary difference was no longer detectable in older males.ConclusionsAlthough delaying maturation to reach the same body size as well fed juveniles can ameliorate some costs of a poor start in life, our findings suggest that costs might still arise because of sexual selection against these males. It should be noted, however, that the observed effects are modest (Hedges’ g = 0.20–0.36), and the assumption that lower sperm production translates into a decline in fitness under sperm competition remains unconfirmed.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12862-016-0838-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are sexually selected traits affected by a poor environment early in life?

2016

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“…Parental care can be found among many invertebrate and vertebrate taxa (Trivers, 1972;CluttonBrock, 1991;Cockburn, 2006;Royle et al, 2012), including fish (Blumer, 1979;Baylis, 1981;Gross and Sargent, 1985), but unlike in other taxa, paternal care is relatively common among fish (Blumer, 1979(Blumer, , 1982Gittleman, 1981). Providing parental care is energetically costly, as resources are diverted away from physiological maintenance of the individual, potentially resulting in reduced growth, immunocompetence and longevity of the parent (Alonso-Álvarez and Velando, 2012). This increased physiological burden also may increase the potential for oxidative stress damage, which increasingly is becoming recognized as a physiological cost associated with parental care and overall fitness (Bell, 1980;Metcalfe and Monaghan, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This increased physiological burden also may increase the potential for oxidative stress damage, which increasingly is becoming recognized as a physiological cost associated with parental care and overall fitness (Bell, 1980;Metcalfe and Monaghan, 2013). Indeed, parental care reflects a fitness trade-off between the current energetic and physiological costs of reproduction, and the maintenance of parental energetic and physiological condition for future survival and reproduction (Alonso-Álvarez and Velando, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress, nutrition and parental care in a teleost fish: Exploring mechanisms with supplemental feeding and cortisol manipulation

Zolderdo

Algera

Lawrence

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Parental care is an essential life-history component of reproduction for many animal species, and it entails a suite of behavioural and physiological investments to enhance offspring survival. These investments can incur costs to the parent, reducing their energetic and physiological condition, future reproductive capabilities and survival. In fishes, relatively few studies have focused on how these physiological costs are mediated.

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“…Thus, it has been suggested that carotenoids provided by parents to offspring could help to reduce oxidative stress (i.e. the imbalance that occurs when antioxidant defences cannot fully neutralize ROS) (Halliwell and Gutteridge, 2007) during early stages of offspring life (reviewed by Møller et al, 2001;Surai, 2002;Blount, 2004;Catoni et al, 2008;Metcalfe and AlonsoÁlvarez, 2010;Alonso-Álvarez and Velando, 2012). However, in the past few years, the role of carotenoids as antioxidants has been questioned, especially in birds (Costantini and Møller, 2008;Cohen and McGraw, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential effects of specific carotenoids on oxidative damage and immune response of gull chicks

Lucas

Morales

Velando

2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Micronutrients are essential for normal metabolic processes during early development. Specifically, it has been suggested that dietderived carotenoids can play a key role in physiological functions because of their antioxidant and immunostimulant properties. However, their role as antioxidants remains controversial. Additionally, it is also unclear whether oxidative stress mediates their immunostimulatory effects. In this field study, we separately supplemented yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) chicks with two carotenoids (lutein and β-carotene) with different molecular structures and different transformation pathways into other oxidative forms of carotenoids. We quantified their effect on the oxidative status and the immune response of chicks before and after an oxidative challenge with paraquat, a pro-oxidant molecule. Prior to oxidative challenge, none of the carotenoid treatments affected the oxidative status of chicks, but they enhanced the inflammatory response to an antigen compared with controls. The oxidative challenge enhanced plasma vitamin E levels (but not in β-carotene-supplemented chicks) and the antioxidant capacity in the short term. Interestingly, luteinsupplemented chicks showed lower oxidative damage to proteins than non-lutein-supplemented chicks. After the oxidative challenge, the positive effect of carotenoid supplementation on the immune response disappeared. Thus, these results suggest differential effects of two carotenoids with different molecular structures on the oxidative status. Lutein but not β-carotene helps to combat oxidative damage after a free-radical exposure. Additionally, the results indicate that the immunostimulatory effects of carotenoids are linked to oxidative status during early life.

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Benefits and costs of parental care

Cited by 117 publications

References 152 publications

Are sexually selected traits affected by a poor environment early in life?

Are sexually selected traits affected by a poor environment early in life?

Stress, nutrition and parental care in a teleost fish: Exploring mechanisms with supplemental feeding and cortisol manipulation

Differential effects of specific carotenoids on oxidative damage and immune response of gull chicks

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