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83 results for “offspring fitness”
Data from: Significant differences in maternal carotenoid provisioning and effects on offspring fitness in Chinook salmon colour morphs
In oviparous species, maternal carotenoid provisioning can deliver diverse fitness benefits to offspring via increased survival, growth, and immune function. Despite demonstrated advantages of carotenoids, large intra‐ and interspecific variation in carotenoid utilization exists, suggesting trade‐offs associated with carotenoids. In Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), extreme variation in carotenoid utilization delineates two colour morphs (red and white) that differ genetically in their ability to deposit carotenoids into tissues. Here, we take advantage of this natural variation to examine how large differences in maternal carotenoid provisioning influence offspring fitness. Using a full‐factorial breeding design crossing morphs and common‐garden rearing, we measured differences in a suite of fitness‐related traits, including survival, growth, viral susceptibility, and host response, in offspring of red (carotenoid‐rich eggs) and white (carotenoid‐poor eggs) females. Eggs of red females had significantly higher carotenoid content than those of white females (6X more); however, this did not translate into measurable differences in offspring fitness. Given that white Chinook salmon may have evolved to counteract their maternal carotenoid deficiency, we also examined the relationship between egg carotenoid content and offspring fitness within each morph separately. Egg carotenoids only had a positive effect within the red morph on survival to eyed‐egg (earliest measured trait), but not within the white morph. While previous work shows that white females benefit from reduced egg predation, our study also supports a hypothesis that white Chinook salmon have evolved additional mechanisms to improve egg survival despite low carotenoids, providing novel insight into evolutionary mechanisms that maintain this stable polymorphism.
Stable flies, Stomoxys calcitrans L. (Diptera: Muscidae), improve offspring fitness by avoiding oviposition substrates with competitors or parasites
<p><span>Oviposition site selection by gravid female insects is an important determinant in species distribution, abundance, and population dynamics. Females may assess the suitability of a potential oviposition substrate by using cues from conspecific or heterospecific individuals already present. Here, we assessed whether the presence of conspecific or heterospecific larvae and parasites influenced oviposition decisions by the stable fly, <i>Stomoxys calcitrans</i> (Linneaus). Using dual and multiple-choice oviposition bioassays, we found that gravid female <i>S. calcitrans</i> avoided substrates with conspecific larvae, the larvae of house flies, <i>Musca domestica</i> (Linneaus), and the mite <i>Macrocheles muscaedomesticae</i> (Scopoli). Avoidance of conspecific and heterospecific larvae persisted in the dark, suggesting that this behaviour is mediated by chemical rather than visual cues. When we reared <i>S. calcitrans</i> in the presence of conspecific larvae and the larvae of house flies at different densities we found that this negatively affected emergence time, larval weight, larval survival, pupal weight, pupal survival, and adult weight. We also demonstrated that individuals of <i>S. calcitrans</i> developed in the presence of mites exhibited low egg hatchability, and poor larval and adult survival. Our study provides additional support for the "preference-performance" hypothesis in<i> S. calcitrans</i>, with gravid females preferring to lay eggs on a substrate that will enhance offspring fitness. We recommend that the chemical cues involved in avoidance by gravid female <i>S. calcitrans</i> of substrates with conspecific and heterospecific larvae should be elucidated. This could lead to the discovery of repellent chemicals important for <i>S. calcitrans</i> management.</span></p>
Data from: Collective dispersal leads to variance in fitness and maintains offspring size variation within marine populations
Variance in fitness is well known to influence the outcome of evolution but is rarely considered in the theory of marine reproductive strategies. In coastal environments, turbulent mesoscale eddies can collect larvae into 'packets' resulting in collective dispersal. Larvae in packets return to the coast or are lost offshore in groups, producing variance in fitness. Using a Markov process to calculate fixation probabilities for competing phenotypes, we examine the evolution of offspring size and spawning duration in species with benthic adults and pelagic offspring. The offspring size that provides mothers with the highest mean fitness also generates the greatest variance in fitness, but pairwise invasion plots show that bet-hedging strategies are not evolutionarily stable: maximizing expected fitness correctly predicts the unique evolutionarily stable strategy. Nonetheless, fixation can take a long time. We find that selection to increase spawning duration as a risk-avoidance strategy to reduce the negative impacts of stochastic recruitment success can allow multiple offspring sizes to coexist in a population for extended periods. This has two important consequences for offspring size: 1) coexistence occurs over a broader range of sizes and is longer when spawning duration is longer, because longer spawning durations reduce variation in fitness and increase the time to fixation, and 2) longer spawning durations can compensate for having a non-optimal size and even allow less optimal sizes to reach fixation. Collective dispersal and longer spawning durations could effectively maintain offspring size variation even in the absence of good and bad years or locations. Empirical comparisons of offspring size would, therefore, not always reflect environment-specific differences in the optimal size.
Data from: Seeing spots: quantifying mother-offspring similarity and assessing fitness consequences of coat pattern traits in a wild population of giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis)
Polymorphic phenotypes of mammalian coat coloration have been important to the study of genetics and evolution, but less is known about the inheritance and fitness consequences of individual variation in complex coat pattern traits such as spots and stripes. Giraffe coat markings are highly complex and variable and it has been hypothesized that variation in coat patterns most likely affects fitness by camouflaging neonates against visually hunting predators. We quantified complex coat pattern traits of wild Masai giraffes using image analysis software, determined the similarity of spot pattern traits between mother and offspring, and assessed whether variation in spot pattern traits was related to fitness as measured by juvenile survival. The methods we described could comprise a framework for objective quantification of complex mammal coat pattern traits based on photographic coat pattern data. We demonstrated that some characteristics of giraffe coat spot shape were likely to be heritable, as measured by mother-offspring regression. We found significant variation in juvenile survival among phenotypic groups of neonates defined by multivariate clustering based on spot trait measurement variables. We also found significant variation in neonatal survival associated with spot size and shape covariates. Larger spots (smaller number of spots) and irregularly shaped spots (smaller aspect ratio) were correlated with increased survival. These findings will inform investigations into developmental and genetic architecture of complex mammal coat patterns and their adaptive value.
Data from: Offspring fitness and the optimal propagule size in a fluctuating environment
Propagule size is an important maternal effect on offspring fitness and phenotype in birds and other oviparous animals. The performance of propagules often increases with size, but a fluctuating environment may introduce temporal variation in the optimal phenotype. Understanding these mechanisms will provide novel insights into the eco-evolutionary dynamics of life history strategies in parental reproductive investment. We investigated the interaction between propagule size (measured as egg volume) and environmental conditions on offspring mortality and phenotype in a Norwegian house sparrow population. Increased propagule size reduced offspring mortality in early life, with more pronounced effects under heavy precipitation. However, the optimal propagule size for low offspring mortality until recruitment shifted from large to small as temperature increased. Propagule size had no significant effect on fledgling body mass and tarsus length. These results reveal a potential for eco-evolutionary dynamics in propagule size, as populations adapt to fluctuating environmental conditions. The ultimate outcome of this dynamic process will also depend on variation in parental fitness and trade-offs with other life-history traits, particularly clutch size.
Data from: Offspring fitness varies with parental extra-pair status in song sparrows, Melospiza melodia
Numerous studies have tested for indirect selection on female extra-pair reproduction (EPR) by quantifying whether extra-pair young (EPY) are fitter than their within-pair young (WPY) maternal half-siblings. In contrast, the hypothesis that offspring of EPY and WPY (rather than the EPY and WPY themselves) differ in fitness has not been tested, even though inter-generational effects of parental extra-pair status on offspring fitness could alter the magnitude and direction of indirect selection on EPR. We tested whether offspring of EPY song sparrows, Melospiza melodia, were more likely to recruit or produce hatched or recruited offspring over their lifetimes than offspring of WPY. Hatchlings with one or two EPY parents were more likely to recruit and produce hatched offspring than hatchlings with two WPY parents. Furthermore, these relationships differed between maternal versus paternal extra-pair status. Hatchlings with EPY fathers were more likely to recruit and produce offspring than hatchlings with WPY fathers. In contrast, hatchlings with EPY mothers were as likely to recruit as hatchlings with WPY mothers and tended to be less likely to produce recruited offspring. Depending on the causal genetic and environmental mechanisms, such conflicting inter-generational relationships between parental extra-pair status and offspring fitness could substantially influence the evolutionary dynamics of EPR.
Data from: Biparental care is more than the sum of its parts: experimental evidence for synergistic effects on offspring fitness
Despite an extensive body of theoretical and empirical literature on biparental cooperation, it is still unclear whether offspring fare equally, better, or worse when receiving care by two parents versus a single parent. Some models predict that parents should withhold the amount of care they provide due to sexual conflict, thereby shifting as much of the workload as possible to their partner. This conflict should lead to offspring faring worse with two parents. Yet, other models predict that when parents care for their offspring together, their individual contributions can have synergistic (more than additive) effects on offspring fitness. Under this scenario, biparental cooperation should lead to offspring faring better with two parents. We address this fundamental question using a unique experimental design where we compared offspring fitness when the two parents worked together (biparental treatment) and when the two parents worked separately (uniparental treatment), while keeping constant the amount of resources and number of offspring per parent across treatments. This made it possible to directly compare the biparental treatment to the sum of the male and female contributions in the uniparental treatment. Our main finding was that offspring grew larger and were more likely to survive to adulthood when reared by both parents than a single parent. This is the first empirical evidence for a synergistic effect of biparental cooperation on offspring fitness and could provide novel insights into the conditions favouring the evolution of biparental cooperation.
Data from: Female lizards choose warm, moist nests that improve embryonic survivorship and offspring fitness
1. The fitness consequence of maternal nest-site choice has attracted increasing scientific attention, but field studies identifying the long-term effects of nest-site choice on offspring survival and reproductive success are still rare in vertebrates. 2. To investigate the consequences of nest-site choice in lizards, we quantified the thermal and hydric conditions of nest sites that were chosen by female toad-headed agama (Phrynocephalus przewalskii) in the desert steppe of northern China. We also determined the effect of nest-site choice on embryonic development and survival and on offspring growth, survival, and maturity by comparing the embryos and offspring from maternally and randomly chosen nest sites. 3. We found that female toad-headed agama chose warm and moist nest sites that improved the developmental rate and survivorship of embryos and promoted the post-hatching growth, sexual maturity, reproduction, and fitness of offspring, thereby improving their reproductive success. 4. Such studies on short-lived lizards across multiple stages of embryonic and postembryonic ontogeny are critical for fully understanding the fitness consequences of nest-site choice.
Data from: Post-hatching parental care masks the effects of egg size on offspring fitness: a removal experiment on burying beetles
Parents can increase the fitness of their offspring by allocating nutrients to eggs and/or providing care for eggs and offspring. Although we have a good understanding of the adaptive significance of both egg size and parental care, remarkably little is known about the co-evolution of these two mechanisms for increasing offspring fitness. Here, we report a parental removal experiment on the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides in which we test whether post-hatching parental care masks the effect of egg size on offspring fitness. As predicted, we found that the parent's presence or absence had a strong main effect on larval body mass, while there was no detectable effect of egg size. Furthermore, egg size had a strong and positive effect on offspring body mass in the parent's absence, while it had no effect on offspring body mass in the parent's presence. These results support the suggestion that the stronger effect of post-hatching parental care on offspring growth masks the weaker effect of egg size. We found no correlation between the number and size of eggs. However, there was a negative correlation between larval body mass and brood size in the parent's presence, but not in its absence. These findings suggest that the trade-off between number and size of offspring is shifted from the egg stage towards the end of the parental care period, and that post-hatching parental care somehow moderates this trade-off.
Data from: Paternal care in a fish: epigenetics and fitness enhancing effects on offspring anxiety
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 offspring—not in the traditional sense through resource provisioning but through an epigenetic effect on offspring behavioural development.
Raw fitness data (offspring number and weight), main dataset for manuscript: Female-specific resource limitation does not make the opportunity for selection more female biased
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Data from: Costly infidelity: low lifetime fitness of extra-pair offspring in a passerine bird
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Data from: Female lizards choose warm, moist nests that improve embryonic survivorship and offspring fitness
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Data from: Estimating the relative fitness of escaped farmed salmon offspring in the wild and modeling the consequences of invasion for wild populations
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Data from: Significant differences in maternal carotenoid provisioning and effects on offspring fitness in Chinook salmon colour morphs
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Data from: Seeing spots: quantifying mother-offspring similarity and assessing fitness consequences of coat pattern traits in a wild population of giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis)
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Data from: Offspring fitness varies with parental extra-pair status in song sparrows, Melospiza melodia
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Data from: Haploid selection within a single ejaculate increases offspring fitness
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Data from: Timing of maternal exposure to toxic cyanobacteria and offspring fitness in Daphnia magna: implications for the evolution of anticipatory maternal effects
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Data from: Parental thermal environment alters offspring sex ratio and fitness in an oviparous lizard
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