Search results for "Maternal effect"

Do pollen donors with fastest-growing pollen tubes sire the best offspring in an anemophilous tree,Betula pendula(Betulaceae)?

2001

The relationship between pollen and progeny performance has been a subject of many studies but the evidence for pollen-tube growth rate as an indicator of progeny fitness is equivocal. We used an anemophilous tree, Betula pendula, to examine the relationship between pollen-tube growth rate and seed and seedling performance. We crossed nine maternal plants with pollen from six pollen donors in a clonal B. pendula seed orchard, measured the pollen-tube growth rates for every cross, and analyzed the performance of the resulting seeds and seedlings. The only significant positive correlation was found between pollen-tube growth rate and seed mass when we controlled for seed number per infloresce…

Offspring performance is linked to parental identity and male breeding ornamentation in whitefish

2009

The ‘good genes’ hypothesis predicts that males advertise their quality with different sexual ornaments and that females are able to recognize the genetic quality of males by evaluating these characteristics. In the present study, we investigated the parental effects on offspring performance (feeding and swimming ability of newly-hatched larvae) and examined whether male ornamentation indicates offspring success in performance trials of whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus Linnaeus). Offspring first-feeding success had a strong paternal effect and it was also positively correlated with the size of male breeding tubercles, indicating that breeding ornamentation of males can function as an honest i…

2015

Competition over access to reproductive opportunities can lead males to harm females. However, recent work has shown that, in Drosophila melanogaster, male competition and male harm of females are both reduced under conditions simulating male-specific population viscosity (i.e., in groups where males are related and reared with each other as larvae). Here, we seek to replicate these findings and investigate whether male population viscosity can have repercussions for the fitness of offspring in the next generation. We show that groups of unrelated-unfamiliar (i.e., unrelated individuals raised apart) males fight more intensely than groups of related-familiar males (i.e., full siblings raise…

Parental experience of a risky environment leads to improved offspring growth rate.

2014

Abstract Parasites (or diseases) are major selective force for the evolution of life history traits and parasite-host evolution. Mothers can show a variety of responses to parasites during pregnancy with different consequences for them or their offspring. However, whether information in the maternal environment before pregnancy can cause a change in the phenotype of the offspring is unknown. To avoid the confounding effect of pathogens and to reduce the risk of direct effect of mother's immune activation, we injected female laboratory mice with lipopolysaccharides (LPS) before mating. In order to provide a constant information on the potential infectious risk of the environment, females wer…

Manipulation of offspring number and size: benefits of large body size at birth depend upon the rearing environment

2003

Summary 1. Allocation of reproductive effort between the number and size of offspring determines the immediate rearing environment for the growing young. As the number of offspring increases, the amount of parental investment per individual offspring decreases, and the quality of the rearing environment is expected to decrease. This may result in a lower quality of offspring reared in such conditions. 2. We studied the effects of the rearing environment on the quality of juvenile bank voles, Clethrionomys glareolus , with different initial body sizes at birth in a 2 〈 2 factorial experiment. The rearing environment was manipulated by enlarging both the litter size by two extra pups, and mea…

Loss-of-function maternal-effect mutations of PADI6 are associated with familial and sporadic Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome with multi-locus imprinting…

2020

Abstract Background PADI6 is a component of the subcortical maternal complex, a group of proteins that is abundantly expressed in the oocyte cytoplasm, but is required for the correct development of early embryo. Maternal-effect variants of the subcortical maternal complex proteins are associated with heterogeneous diseases, including female infertility, hydatidiform mole, and imprinting disorders with multi-locus imprinting disturbance. While the involvement of PADI6 in infertility is well demonstrated, its role in imprinting disorders is less well established. Results We have identified by whole-exome sequencing analysis four cases of Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome with multi-locus imprintin…

Olfaction scaffolds the developing human from neonate to adolescent and beyond

2020

The impact of the olfactory sense is regularly apparent across development. The fetus is bathed in amniotic fluid (AF) that conveys the mother's chemical ecology. Transnatal olfactory continuity between the odours of AF and milk assists in the transition to nursing. At the same time, odours emanating from the mammary areas provoke appetitive responses in newborns. Odours experienced from the mother's diet during breastfeeding, and from practices such as pre-mastication, may assist in the dietary transition at weaning. In parallel, infants are attracted to and recognize their mother's odours; later, children are able to recognize other kin and peers based on their odours. Familiar odours, su…

Males influence maternal effects that promote sexual selection: a quantitative genetic experiment with dung beetles Onthophagus taurus

2003

J.S.K. was funded by the Academy of Finland, L.W.S. by the Australian Research Council, J.H. by an Australian Postgraduate Award, and J.L.T. by a postdoctoral research fellowship from the University of Western Australia. Recently, doubt has been cast on studies supporting good genes sexual selection by the suggestion that observed genetic benefits for offspring may be confounded by differential maternal allocation. In traditional analyses, observed genetic sire effects on offspring phenotype may result from females allocating more resources to the offspring of attractive males. However, maternal effects such as differential allocation may represent a mechanism promoting genetic sire effects…

THE COST OF REPRODUCTION INDUCED BY BODY SIZE AT BIRTH AND BREEDING DENSITY

2007

Body size at birth has implications for the quality of individuals throughout their life. Although large body size is generally considered an advantage, the relationship between body size at birth and long-term fitness is often complicated. Under spatial or temporal variation in environmental conditions, such as the seasonally changing densities of Fennoscandian vole populations, selection should favor variation in offspring phenotypes, as different qualities may be beneficial in different conditions. We performed an experiment in which a novel hormonal manipulation method was used to increase phenotypic variance in body size at birth in the bank vole (Myodes glareolus). The effects of body…

Sex-specific differences in offspring personalities across the laying order in magpies Pica pica

2013

Maternal effects provide an important mechanism for mothers to create variation in offspring personality, and to potentially influence offspring life history strategies e.g. creating more/less dispersive phenotypes. However, within-clutch maternal effects often vary and hence there is potential for within-clutch variation in personality. We studied the effects of hatching order on explorative and neophobic behaviour of the magpies Pica pica in relation to sex using novel environment and novel object experiments. Hatching order did affect explorative behaviour in magpie, but did so in opposite directions for either sex. First-hatched females were more explorative and had a tendency to be les…