The adaptive significance of maternal effects
TL;DR: It has become evident that many maternal effects have been shaped by the action of natural selection to act as a mechanism for adaptive phenotypic response to environmental heterogeneity, and maternal experience is translated into variation in offspring fitness.
Abstract: Recently, the adaptive significance of maternal effects has been increasingly recognized. No longer are maternal effects relegated as simple `troublesome sources of environmental resemblance' that confound our ability to estimate accurately the genetic basis of traits of interest. Rather, it has become evident that many maternal effects have been shaped by the action of natural selection to act as a mechanism for adaptive phenotypic response to environmental heterogeneity. Consequently, maternal experience is translated into variation in offspring fitness.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: It is concluded that host plant quality affects the fecundity of herbivorous insects at both the individual and the population scale.
Abstract: Host plant quality is a key determinant of the fecundity of herbivorous insects. Components of host plant quality (such as carbon, nitrogen, and defensive metabolites) directly affect potential and achieved herbivore fecundity. The responses of insect herbivores to changes in host plant quality vary within and between feeding guilds. Host plant quality also affects insect reproductive strategies: Egg size and quality, the allocation of resources to eggs, and the choice of oviposition sites may all be influenced by plant quality, as may egg or embryo resorption on poor-quality hosts. Many insect herbivores change the quality of their host plants, affecting both inter- and intraspecific interactions. Higher-trophic level interactions, such as the performance of predators and parasitoids, may also be affected by host plant quality. We conclude that host plant quality affects the fecundity of herbivorous insects at both the individual and the population scale.
1,962 citations
TL;DR: It is concluded that post‐copulatory mechanisms provide a more reliable way of selecting a genetically compatible mate than pre-copulatory mate choice and that some of the best evidence for cryptic female choice by sperm selection is due to selection of more compatible sperm.
Abstract: The aim of this review is to consider the potential benefits that females may gain from mating more than once in a single reproductive cycle. The relationship between non-genetic and genetic benefits is briefly explored. We suggest that multiple mating for purely non-genetic benefits is unlikely as it invariably leads to the possibility of genetic benefits as well. We begin by briefly reviewing the main models for genetic benefits to mate choice, and the supporting evidence that choice can increase offspring performance and the sexual attractiveness of sons. We then explain how multiple mating can elevate offspring fitness by increasing the number of potential sires that compete, when this occurs in conjunction with mechanisms of paternity biasing that function in copula or post-copulation. We begin by identifying cases where females use pre-copulatory cues to identify mates prior to remating. In the simplest case, females remate because they identify a superior mate and 'trade up' genetically. The main evidence for this process comes from extra-pair copulation in birds. Second, we note other cases where pre-copulatory cues may be less reliable and females mate with several males to promote post-copulatory mechanisms that bias paternity. Although a distinction is drawn between sperm competition and cryptic female choice, we point out that the genetic benefits to polyandry in terms of producing more viable or sexually attractive offspring do not depend on the exact mechanism that leads to biased paternity. Post-copulatory mechanisms of paternity biasing may: (1) reduce genetic incompatibility between male and female genetic contributions to offspring; (2) increase offspring viability if there is a positive correlation between traits favoured post-copulation and those that improve performance under natural selection; (3) increase the ability of sons to gain paternity when they mate with polyandrous females. A third possibility is that genetic diversity among offspring is directly favoured. This can be due to bet-hedging (due to mate assessment errors or temporal fluctuations in the environment), beneficial interactions between less related siblings or the opportunity to preferentially fertilise eggs with sperm of a specific genotype drawn from a range of stored sperm depending on prevailing environmental conditions. We use case studies from the social insects to provide some concrete examples of the role of genetic diversity among progeny in elevating fitness. We conclude that post-copulatory mechanisms provide a more reliable way of selecting a genetically compatible mate than pre-copulatory mate choice. Some of the best evidence for cryptic female choice by sperm selection is due to selection of more compatible sperm. Two future areas of research seem likely to be profitable. First, more experimental evidence is needed demonstrating that multiple mating increases offspring fitness via genetic gains. Second, the role of multiple mating in promoting assortative fertilization and increasing reproductive isolation between populations may help us to understand sympatric speciation.
1,778 citations
TL;DR: Conditions experienced during early development affect survival and reproductive performance in many bird and mammal species and have an important influence both on the optimization of life histories and on population dynamics.
Abstract: Conditions experienced during early development affect survival and reproductive performance in many bird and mammal species. Factors affecting early development can therefore have an important influence both on the optimization of life histories and on population dynamics. The understanding of these evolutionary and dynamic consequences is just starting to emerge.
1,517 citations
TL;DR: This review focuses on the enduring effects of naturally occurring variations in maternal care on gene expression and phenotype to provide an example of environmentally driven plasticity at the level of the DNA, revealing the interdependence of gene and environmental in the regulation of phenotype.
Abstract: Variations in phenotype reflect the influence of environmental conditions during development on cellular functions, including that of the genome. The recent integration of epigenetics into developmental psychobiology illustrates the processes by which environmental conditions in early life structurally alter DNA, providing a physical basis for the influence of the perinatal environmental signals on phenotype over the life of the individual. This review focuses on the enduring effects of naturally occurring variations in maternal care on gene expression and phenotype to provide an example of environmentally driven plasticity at the level of the DNA, revealing the interdependence of gene and environmental in the regulation of phenotype.
1,048 citations
Cites background from "The adaptive significance of matern..."
...This capacity for phenotypic plasticity (Agrawal, 2001; Mousseau & Fox, 1998) is a product of evolutionary forces....
[...]
...And there is evidence that these phenotypic effects are adaptive within adverse settings (Mousseau & Fox, 1998)....
[...]
...Studies in the fields of evolutionary biology and ecology report maternal effects on phenotype in the offspring across a wide range of species (see Figure 6; Badyaev, 2008; Cameron et al., 2005; Meaney, 2007; Mousseau & Fox, 1998; Rossiter, 1998)....
[...]
TL;DR: This paper outlines how the different paradigms applied in this field relate to each other, the main predictions that they produce and the kinds of experimental data needed to distinguish among competing hypotheses, and examines evidence from mechanistic and functional avian studies.
Abstract: Phenotypic development is the result of a complex interplay involving the organism’s own genetic make-up and the environment it experiences during development. The latter encompasses not just the current environment, but also indirect, and sometimes lagged, components that result from environmental effects on its parents that are transmitted to their developing offspring in various ways and at various stages. These environmental effects can simply constrain development, for example, where poor maternal condition gives rise to poorly provisioned, low-quality offspring. However, it is also possible that environmental circumstances during development shape the offspring phenotype in such a way as to better prepare it for the environmental conditions it is most likely to encounter during its life. Studying the extent to which direct and indirect developmental responses to environmental effects are adaptive requires clear elucidation of hypotheses and careful experimental manipulations. In this paper, I outline how the different paradigms applied in this field relate to each other, the main predictions that they produce and the kinds of experimental data needed to distinguish among competing hypotheses. I focus on birds in particular, but the theories discussed are not taxon specific. Environmental influences on phenotypic development are likely to be mediated, in part at least, by endocrine systems. I examine evidence from mechanistic and functional avian studies and highlight the general areas where we lack key information.
822 citations
Cites background from "The adaptive significance of matern..."
...They can also come indirectly, when environmental effects on one individual, often the mother, influence phenotypic development in another, usually its offspring; these are generally referred to as maternal effects (Mousseau & Fox 1998; Wolf et al. 1998)....
[...]
...This may be clear, as in the above insect example where changes in photoperiod signal the onset of winter, and diapausing offspring have a higher chance of survival (Mousseau & Fox 1998)....
[...]
...In many insects, for example, breeding females change their production of diapausing or directly developing offspring in response to temperature, photoperiod and resource availability (Mousseau & Fox 1998)....
[...]
References
More filters
7,817 citations
"The adaptive significance of matern..." refers background in this paper
...... for adaptive transgenerational phenotypic plasticity, in which the environment experienced by the mother is translated into phenotypic variation in the offspring, and that this relationship can be envisioned (and modeled) as a reaction norm (Box 1). Here, we explore four broad classes of environmentally induced maternal effects that have received considerable attention in recent years: (1) maternal effects on offspring development, ( 2 ) the ......
[...]
...... manipulate sex ratio by simply choosing whether to fertilize an egg (haplodiploidy; fertilized eggs generally produce females, with diploid males uncommon in most species) 20. For example, in most parasitic wasps, females manipulate progeny sex ratio in response to: (1) host size ‐ producing female progeny on larger hosts because host size affects the lifetime reproductive success of female progeny more than that of male progeny; and ( 2 ) ......
[...]
3,307 citations
Book•
30 Apr 1993
TL;DR: This chapter discusses life history variations, the age schedules of birth and death, the cost of reproduction, and the size of clutch and offspring size.
Abstract: Life history variations: a first look. Quantitative genetic background. Life history theory: a framework. Methods of analysis. The age schedules of birth and death. The cost of reproduction. Age and size at maturity. Reproductive effort. Clutch size. Offspring size. Final thoughts. Index.
2,934 citations