COMPLEX INTERACTIONS BETWEEN PATERNAL AND MATERNAL EFFECTS: PARENTAL EXPERIENCE AND AGE AT REPRODUCTION AFFECT FECUNDITY AND OFFSPRING PERFORMANCE IN A BUTTERFLY

Parental effects can greatly affect offspring performance and are thus expected to impact population dynamics and evolutionary trajectories. Most studies have focused on maternal effects, whereas fathers are also likely to influence offspring phenotype, for instance when males transfer nutrients to...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evolution 2012-11, Vol.66 (11), p.3558-3569
Main Authors: Ducatez, Simon, Baguette, M., Stevens, V. M., Legrand, D., Fréville, H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Age Factors
Animal reproduction
Animals
Butterflies
Butterflies & moths
Butterflies - genetics
Butterflies - growth & development
Butterflies - physiology
Evolution
Female animals
Fertility
Genotype & phenotype
Larva - growth & development
Larva - physiology
Life Sciences
Life span
Male animals
Mate choice
Maternal age
Maternal effect
Mating behavior
mobility
nuptial gift
Ovum - growth & development
Ovum - physiology
Paternal age
Phenotype
Pieris brassicae
Reproduction
senescence
Sex Factors
Stress, Physiological
transgenerational effects
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Parental effects can greatly affect offspring performance and are thus expected to impact population dynamics and evolutionary trajectories. Most studies have focused on maternal effects, whereas fathers are also likely to influence offspring phenotype, for instance when males transfer nutrients to females during mating. Moreover, although the separate effects of maternal age and the environment have been documented as a source of parental effects in many species, their combined effects have not been investigated. In the present study, we analyzed the combined effects of maternal and paternal age at reproduction and a mobility treatment in stressful conditions on offspring performance in the butterfly Pieris brassicae. Both paternal and maternal effects affected progeny traits but always via interactions between age and mobility treatment. Moreover, parental effects shifted from male effects expressed at the larval stage to maternal effects at the adult stage. Indeed, egg survival until adult emergence significantly decreased with father age at mating only for fathers having experienced the mobility treatment, whereas offspring adult life span decreased with increasing mother age at laying only for females that did not experience the mobility treatment. Overall, our results demonstrate that both parents' phenotypes influence offspring performance through nongenetic effects, their relative contribution varying over the course of progeny's life.
ISSN:0014-3820
1558-5646
DOI:10.1111/j.1558-5646.2012.01704.x