Prenatal environmental effects match offspring begging to parental provisioning

Hinde, Camilla A.; Buchanan, Katherine L.; Kilner, Rebecca M.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.0375

Cited by 68 publications

(117 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…For example, great tit (Parus major) parents exposed to nest ectoparasites reduce yolk-androgen deposition, presumably to increase nestling immunocompetence (Tschirren et al 2004), and by varying yolk-androgen deposition birds also modify nestling begging (e.g. Hinde et al 2009). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An immunological cost of begging in house sparrow nestlings

Moreno‐Rueda

2010

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Parent -offspring conflict predicts that offspring should demand a greater parental investment than is optimal for their parents to deliver. This would escalate the level of offspring demand ad infinitum, but most of the models on the evolution of parent-offspring communication predict that begging must be costly, such costs limiting the escalation and defining an optimal level of begging. However, empirical evidence on this issue is mixed. A potential begging cost that remains to be accurately explored is a decrease in immunocompetence for offspring begging fiercely. This study experimentally analyses this cost in house sparrow (Passer domesticus) nestlings. A group of nestlings was forced to beg fiercely for a prolonged time while a control group begged at low levels, both groups receiving the same quantity of food. At the same time, the nestling response to an antigen (phytohaemagglutinin) was measured. Nestlings forced to beg fiercely showed a reduction in immunocompetence with respect to control chicks, but the two groups showed no difference in growth rate. The largest and the smallest nestlings in each brood showed a similar response to the treatment. These results strongly suggest a trade-off between begging and immunocompetence in this species. This trade-off may be a consequence either of resources from the immune system being reallocated to begging behaviour, or of adaptive immunosuppression in order to avoid oxidative stress. Steroid hormones are proposed as mediators of such a trade-off.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An immunological cost of begging in house sparrow nestlings

Moreno‐Rueda

2010

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…owing to transgenerational plasticity). Parents might adjust their investment in offspring care based on the environment they have experienced [27], or even the environment their partner had experienced [28]. In sticklebacks, maternal predator-exposure has a number of negative consequences for offspring [29,30] and thus it is possible that differences among families in anxiety are driven by maternal identity or experiences.…”

Section: (C) Effects Of Anxiety On Survivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paternal care in a fish: epigenetics and fitness enhancing effects on offspring anxiety

McGhee

Bell

2014

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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In many animals, including humans, interactions with caring parents can have long-lasting effects on offspring sensitivity to stressors. However, whether these parental effects impact offspring fitness in nature is often unclear. In addition, despite evidence that maternal care can influence offspring behaviour via epigenetic alterations to the genome, it remains unclear whether paternal care has similar effects. Here, we show in three-spined sticklebacks, a fish in which fathers are the sole provider of offspring care, that the direct care provided by fathers affects offspring anxiety and the potential for epigenetic alterations to the offspring genome. We find that families are differentially vulnerable to early stress and fathers can compensate for this differential sensitivity with the quality of their care. This variation in paternal care is also linked to the expression in offspring brains of a DNA methyltransferase (Dnmt3a) responsible for de novo methylation. We show that these paternal effects are potentially adaptive and anxious offspring are unlikely to survive an encounter with a predator. By supplying offspring care, fathers reduce offspring anxiety thereby increasing the survival of their offspringnot in the traditional sense through resource provisioning but through an epigenetic effect on offspring behavioural development.

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“…the immediate maternal environment) (e.g. Benton et al, 2008;Hinde et al, 2009;Beldade et al, 2011). However, perhaps more overlooked is the fact that they can also vary between ultimate contexts (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographical differences in maternal basking behaviour and offspring growth rate in a climatically widespread viviparous reptile

Cadby

Jones

Wapstra

2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

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In reptiles, the thermal environment during embryonic development affects offspring phenotypic traits and potentially offspring fitness. In viviparous species, mothers can potentially manipulate the embryonic thermal environment through their basking behaviour and, thus, may be able to manipulate offspring phenotype and increase offspring fitness. One way in which mothers can maximise offspring phenotype (and thus potentially affect offspring fitness) is by fine-tuning their basking behaviour to the environment in order to buffer the embryo from deleterious developmental temperatures. In widespread species, it is unclear whether populations that have evolved under different climatic conditions will exhibit different maternal behaviours and/or thermal effects on offspring phenotype. To test this, we provided extended or reduced basking opportunity to gravid spotted skinks (Niveoscincus ocellatus) and their offspring from two populations at the climatic extremes of the species' distribution. Gravid females finetuned their basking behaviour to the basking opportunity, which allowed them to buffer their embryos from potentially negative thermal effects. This fine-tuning of female basking behaviour appears to have led to the expression of geographical differences in basking behaviour, with females from the cold alpine regions being more opportunistic in their basking behaviour than females from the warmer regions. However, those differences in maternal behaviour did not preclude the evolution of geographic differences in thermal effects: offspring growth varied between populations, potentially suggesting local adaptation to basking conditions. Our results demonstrate that maternal effects and phenotypic plasticity can play a significant role in allowing species to cope in changing environmental conditions, which is particularly relevant in the context of climate change. KEY WORDS: Maternal effect, Maternal buffering, Climate change, Phenotypic plasticity, Population, Spotted skink INTRODUCTIONMaternal effects are the interactions between a mother and her offspring that affect offspring phenotype independently of the mother's genetic contribution. They have been described as being highly dynamic, and they vary in direction and strength depending on the environment or the context (Uller, 2008;Plaistow and Benton, 2009 et al., 2011). However, perhaps more overlooked is the fact that they can also vary between ultimate contexts (i.e. the environmental conditions under which they have evolved) and may in some cases become locally adapted (Ghalambor et al., 2007;Hof et al., 2011;Hoffmann and Sgrò, 2011). Typically, we would expect to see local adaptation in maternal effects in widespread species in which the immediate maternal environment differs consistently between populations (e.g. Räsänen et al., 2005;Doody et al., 2006;Doody, 2009).In reptiles, the temperature experienced by embryos during development can affect numerous phenotypic traits such as date of birth, size at birth, sex, locomotor performance or beh...

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Prenatal environmental effects match offspring begging to parental provisioning

Cited by 68 publications

References 58 publications

An immunological cost of begging in house sparrow nestlings

An immunological cost of begging in house sparrow nestlings

Paternal care in a fish: epigenetics and fitness enhancing effects on offspring anxiety

Geographical differences in maternal basking behaviour and offspring growth rate in a climatically widespread viviparous reptile

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