Environmental causes and transgenerational consequences of ecdysteroid hormone provisioning in Acheta domesticus

Crocker, Katherine C.; Hunter, Mark D.

doi:10.1016/j.jinsphys.2018.06.003

Cited by 15 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…For each female, we used eggs from the first clutch laid; in most cases (54 of 100 focal individuals, evenly dispersed across treatments (ANOVA, F 3,96 = 1.50, p = 0.219)), we supplemented the sample using eggs from subsequent clutches. Previous experiments have shown that A. domesticus do not vary in their ESH provisioning of eggs over their lifetime (Crocker & Hunter, ), and so combining clutches for analysis will not alter the measured masses of ESH per egg.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For each focal female, we recorded the length of time (days) between reaching maturity and laying their first batch of eggs (hereafter, lay latency). All eggs were collected as described by Crocker and Hunter () and stored at −20°C (Warren et al., ). We used a subset ( N = 20) of each focal female's eggs to quantify the mass of active ESH present per egg using an Enzyme Immunoassay protocol described previously (Crocker & Hunter, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All eggs were collected as described by Crocker and Hunter () and stored at −20°C (Warren et al., ). We used a subset ( N = 20) of each focal female's eggs to quantify the mass of active ESH present per egg using an Enzyme Immunoassay protocol described previously (Crocker & Hunter, ). In brief, we partitioned ESH from eggs into methanol (MeOH), which we dried by vacuum.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We then reconstituted the extract in 0.5M Tris‐HCl buffer, and purified it with 60% MeOH in Milli‐Q water elution across a C‐18 Solid Phase Extraction column. We dried the 60% MeOH solution under vacuum and dissolved the purified extract in EIA Buffer (Cayman Chemical Company, Ann Arbor, MI, USA), which we then used to assay ESH mass per sample via the Cayman Chemical Company's 20‐hydroxyecdysone enzyme immunoassay materials (see Crocker & Hunter, for details and a validation of this assay and extraction technique). For each female, we used eggs from the first clutch laid; in most cases (54 of 100 focal individuals, evenly dispersed across treatments (ANOVA, F 3,96 = 1.50, p = 0.219)), we supplemented the sample using eggs from subsequent clutches.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Acheta domesticus is amenable to laboratory rearing, which makes it an expedient organism with which to investigate transgenerational effects of variable maternal hormone deposition to eggs. For example, we have previously shown that variation in egg ESH provisioning translates into variation in offspring life history traits, whereby increased ESH provisioning results in larger, faster‐growing hatchlings in spite of uniform egg size (Crocker & Hunter, ). Although our previous study identified one cause (grand‐maternal diet quality) of variation in ESH provisioning, this variable did not account for all of the variation that we observed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social density, but not sex ratio, drives ecdysteroid hormone provisioning to eggs by female house crickets (Acheta domesticus)

Crocker

Hunter

2018

Ecology and Evolution

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Social environment profoundly influences the fitness of animals, affecting their probability of survival to adulthood, longevity, and reproductive output. The social conditions experienced by parents at the time of reproduction can predict the social environments that offspring will face. Despite clear challenges in predicting future environmental conditions, adaptive maternal effects provide a mechanism of passing environmental information from parent to offspring and are now considered pervasive in natural systems. Maternal effects have been widely studied in vertebrates, especially in the context of social environment, and are often mediated by steroid hormone (SH) deposition to eggs. In insects, although many species dramatically alter phenotype and life‐history traits in response to social density, the mechanisms of these alterations, and the role of hormone deposition by insect mothers into their eggs, remains unknown. In the experiments described here, we assess the effects of social environment on maternal hormone deposition to eggs in house crickets (Acheta domesticus). Specifically, we tested the hypotheses that variable deposition of ecdysteroid hormones (ESH) to eggs is affected by both maternal (a) social density and (b) social composition. We found that while maternal hormone deposition to eggs does not respond to social composition (sex ratio), it does reflect social density; females provision their eggs with higher ESH doses under low‐density conditions. This finding is consistent with the interpretation that variable ESH provisioning is an adaptive maternal response to social environment and congruent with similar patterns of variable maternal provisioning across the tree of life. Moreover, our results confirm that maternal hormone provisioning may mediate delayed density dependence by introducing a time lag in the response of offspring phenotype to population size.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social density, but not sex ratio, drives ecdysteroid hormone provisioning to eggs by female house crickets (Acheta domesticus)

Crocker

Hunter

2018

Ecology and Evolution

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The physiology of insect families: A door to the study of social evolution

Trumbo

2019

Advances in Insect Physiology

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Females adjust maternal hormone concentration in eggs according to male condition in a burying beetle

Paquet

Parenteau

Ford

et al. 2020

Hormones and Behavior

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In birds and other vertebrates, there is good evidence that females adjust the allocation of hormones in their eggs in response to prenatal environmental conditions, such as food availability or male phenotype, with profound consequences for life history traits of offspring. In insects, there is also evidence that females deposit juvenile hormones (JH) and ecdysteroids (ESH) in their eggs, hormones that play a key role in regulating offspring growth and metamorphosis. However, it is unclear whether females adjust their hormonal deposition in eggs in response to prenatal environmental conditions. Here we address this gap by conducting an experiment on the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, in which we manipulated the presence of the male parent and the size of the carcass used for breeding at the time of laying. We also tested for effects of the condition (i.e., body mass) of the parents. We then recorded subsequent effects on JH and ESH concentrations in the eggs. We found no evidence for an effect of these prenatal environmental conditions (male presence and carcass size) on hormonal concentration in the eggs. However, we found that females reduced their deposition of JH when mated with heavier males. This finding is consistent with negative differential allocation of maternal hormones in response to variation in the body mass of the male parent. We encourage further work to investigate the role of maternally derived hormones in insect eggs.

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Environmental causes and transgenerational consequences of ecdysteroid hormone provisioning in Acheta domesticus

Cited by 15 publications

References 69 publications

Social density, but not sex ratio, drives ecdysteroid hormone provisioning to eggs by female house crickets (Acheta domesticus)

Social density, but not sex ratio, drives ecdysteroid hormone provisioning to eggs by female house crickets (Acheta domesticus)

The physiology of insect families: A door to the study of social evolution

Females adjust maternal hormone concentration in eggs according to male condition in a burying beetle

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