Parental effects alter the adaptive value of an adult behavioural trait

Kilner, Rebecca M.; Boncoraglio, Giuseppe; Henshaw, Jonathan M.; Jarrett, Benjamin J. M.; Gasperin, Ornela De; Attisano, Alfredo; Kokko, Hanna

doi:10.7554/elife.07340

Cited by 31 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 51 publications

(82 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The pronotum width of all the experimental beetles fell within the range observed in natural populations of this species (range of beetles found in the wild: 3.10–6.01 mm (Sun et al., unpubl. data, Kilner et al., ); range in this experiment: 3.32–5.90 mm).…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 49%

Superior stimulation of female fecundity by subordinate males provides a mechanism for telegony

Pascoal

Jarrett

Evans³

et al. 2018

Evolution Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

When females mate promiscuously, rival males compete to fertilise the ova. In theory, a male can increase his success at siring offspring by inducing the female to lay more eggs, as well as by producing more competitive sperm. Here we report that the evolutionary consequences of fecundity stimulation extend beyond rival males, by experimentally uncovering effects on offspring. With experiments on the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, we show that smaller subordinate males are better able to stimulate female fecundity than larger, dominant males. Furthermore dominant males also benefit from the greater fecundity induced by smaller males, and so gain from the female's earlier promiscuity ‐ just as predicted by theory. By inducing females to produce more offspring on a limited resource, smaller males cause each larva to be smaller, even those they do not sire themselves. Fecundity stimulation thus promotes the non‐genetic inheritance of offspring body size, and provides a mechanism for telegony.

show abstract

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 49%

Superior stimulation of female fecundity by subordinate males provides a mechanism for telegony

Pascoal

Jarrett

Evans³

et al. 2018

Evolution Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Thus, we measured their fecundity the first time they bred, and their subsequent life span, as a function of their two exposures to mites. The opportunistic nature of the burying beetle's reproduction means life span is a good proxy for residual fitness, as has been explained and justified in detail before (De Gasperin & Kilner, ; Kilner et al, ). The shorter a beetle's life, the less likely it is that it will survive to find another carcass for reproduction.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 83%

The early‐life environment and individual plasticity in life‐history traits

Gasperin

Duarte

English

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We tested whether the early‐life environment can influence the extent of individual plasticity in a life‐history trait. We asked: can the early‐life environment explain why, in response to the same adult environmental cue, some individuals invest more than others in current reproduction? Moreover, can it additionally explain why investment in current reproduction trades off against survival in some individuals, but is positively correlated with survival in others? We addressed these questions using the burying beetle, which breeds on small carcasses and sometimes carries phoretic mites. These mites breed alongside the beetle, on the same resource, and are a key component of the beetle's early‐life environment. We exposed female beetles to mites twice during their lives: during their development as larvae and again as adults during their first reproductive event. We measured investment in current reproduction by quantifying average larval mass and recorded the female's life span after breeding to quantify survival. We found no effect of either developing or breeding alongside mites on female reproductive investment, nor on her life span, nor did developing alongside mites influence her size. In post hoc analyses, where we considered the effect of mite number (rather than their mere presence/absence) during the female's adult breeding event, we found that females invested more in current reproduction when exposed to greater mite densities during reproduction, but only if they had been exposed to mites during development as well. Otherwise, they invested less in larvae at greater mite densities. Furthermore, females that had developed with mites exhibited a trade‐off between investment in current reproduction and future survival, whereas these traits were positively correlated in females that had developed without mites. The early‐life environment thus generates individual variation in life‐history plasticity. We discuss whether this is because mites influence the resources available to developing young or serve as important environmental cues.

show abstract

“…The social environment imposes selection directly on the traits that mediate social interactions within species such as the maintenance of honest signaling in quorum sensing bacteria (1). The social environment can also influence evolution more indirectly by accelerating or preventing a response to directional selection (2,3) and by changing the adaptive value of the traits it induces (4,5). In previous work, the influence of the social environment on trait evolution has been analysed mainly for traits that are selected by social interactions within species, such as body size (which influences competitive ability) or signals between conspecifics (3,(6)(7)(8).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The level of care supplied by parents is well known to be influenced by diverse intraspecific interactions including sexual conflict between parents, conflict between parents and offspring and competition and cooperation between offspring over resource division (2,6,(12)(13)(14). Since interactions within the family play out during development, they can have a major non-genetic role in determining an individual's phenotype (3,4,6,14). Importantly, these effects can persist into adulthood and can shape an individual's fitness throughout its lifespan (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Parental care shapes evolution of aposematism and provides lifelong protection against predators

Lindstedt

Boncoraglio

Cotter

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Social interactions within species can modulate the response to selection and determine the extent of evolutionary change. Yet relatively little work has determined whether the social environment can influence the evolution of traits that are selected by interactions with other species -a major source of natural selection. Here we show that the amount of parental care received as an offspring can influence the expression, and potential evolution, of warning displays deployed against predators in adulthood. In theory, warning displays by prey are selected by predators for uniformity and to reliably advertise the extent to which individuals are chemically defended. However, the correlated evolution of intensity of the visual display and strength of the chemical defense is only possible if there is a genetic correlation between them. Adult burying beetles Nicrophorus vespilloides bear bright orange elytral markings which advertise their chemical defenses. We experimentally manipulated the level of maternal care that individuals received when they were larvae and then measured the strength of the correlation between the component parts of the warning display when they reached adulthood. We found that under limited care individuals were smaller and produced less conspicuous warning displays. The underlying family (genetic) correlation between the visual display and the chemical defense was weaker in individuals that received little care as larvae. We conclude that parenting by burying beetles modulates the evolvability of aposematic defense, making correlated evolutionary change in signal intensity and chemical defense less likely when they restrict care to their young.Significance Statement: Parental care can improve early offspring survival against predators. However, we have little knowledge of how its effects shape the evolution of predator-prey interactions later in the offspring's life. We tested this with carrion beetles who provide care for offspring and who carry warning coloration to advertise to predators that they are chemically defended. We show that more parental care resulted in larger, more brightly coloured and chemically defended adult beetles. Furthermore, when parents had provided little care for their young we found weaker genetic correlations between warning signal salience and chemical defense. Over time, this could result in untrustworthy warning signals, which could render them ineffective against predators.

show abstract

Parental effects alter the adaptive value of an adult behavioural trait

Cited by 31 publications

References 51 publications

Superior stimulation of female fecundity by subordinate males provides a mechanism for telegony

Superior stimulation of female fecundity by subordinate males provides a mechanism for telegony

The early‐life environment and individual plasticity in life‐history traits

Parental care shapes evolution of aposematism and provides lifelong protection against predators

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About