TY - JOUR
T1 - The interplay between sperm-mediated and care-mediated paternal effects in threespine sticklebacks
AU - Hellmann, Jennifer K.
AU - Carlson, Erika R.
AU - Bell, Alison M.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Cassandra Afseth, Samantha Anderson and Andrew Shim for help with data collection, Jason Keagy for help with paternal care observations and analysis, Ryan Earley for help with the hormone assays and the Bell lab for comments on previous versions of this manuscript. This work was supported by U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) award 2R01GM082937-06A1 to Alison Bell, NIH NRSA fellowship F32GM121033 to Jennifer Hellmann and the American Genetic Association Evolutionary, Ecological, or Conservation Genomics Research Award .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - The environment experienced by one generation can influence the phenotypes of future generations. Because parental cues can be conveyed to offspring at multiple points in time, ranging from fertilization to posthatching/parturition, offspring can potentially receive multiple cues from their parents via different mechanisms. We have relatively little information regarding how different mechanisms operate in isolation and in tandem, but it is possible, for example, that offspring phenotypes induced by nongenetic changes to gametes may be amplified by, mitigated by, or depend upon parental care. Here, we manipulated paternal experience with predation risk prior to fertilization in threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, and then examined the potential of paternal care to mitigate and/or amplify sperm-mediated paternal effects. Specifically, we compared (1) offspring of predator-exposed fathers who were reared without paternal care, (2) offspring of predator-exposed fathers who were reared with paternal care, (3) offspring of control (unexposed) fathers who were reared without paternal care and (4) offspring of control fathers who were reared with paternal care. We found that offspring of predator-exposed fathers were less active and had higher cortisol following a simulated predator attack. Although predator-exposed males shifted their paternal care behaviours – reduced fanning early in egg development and increased fanning right before egg hatching compared to control males – this shift in paternal behavior did not appear to affect offspring traits. This suggests that paternal care neither amplifies nor compensates for these phenotypic effects induced by sperm and that nongenetic changes induced by sperm may occur independently of nongenetic changes induced by paternal care. Overall, these results underscore the importance of considering how parents may have multiple nongenetic mechanisms by which they can influence offspring.
AB - The environment experienced by one generation can influence the phenotypes of future generations. Because parental cues can be conveyed to offspring at multiple points in time, ranging from fertilization to posthatching/parturition, offspring can potentially receive multiple cues from their parents via different mechanisms. We have relatively little information regarding how different mechanisms operate in isolation and in tandem, but it is possible, for example, that offspring phenotypes induced by nongenetic changes to gametes may be amplified by, mitigated by, or depend upon parental care. Here, we manipulated paternal experience with predation risk prior to fertilization in threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, and then examined the potential of paternal care to mitigate and/or amplify sperm-mediated paternal effects. Specifically, we compared (1) offspring of predator-exposed fathers who were reared without paternal care, (2) offspring of predator-exposed fathers who were reared with paternal care, (3) offspring of control (unexposed) fathers who were reared without paternal care and (4) offspring of control fathers who were reared with paternal care. We found that offspring of predator-exposed fathers were less active and had higher cortisol following a simulated predator attack. Although predator-exposed males shifted their paternal care behaviours – reduced fanning early in egg development and increased fanning right before egg hatching compared to control males – this shift in paternal behavior did not appear to affect offspring traits. This suggests that paternal care neither amplifies nor compensates for these phenotypic effects induced by sperm and that nongenetic changes induced by sperm may occur independently of nongenetic changes induced by paternal care. Overall, these results underscore the importance of considering how parents may have multiple nongenetic mechanisms by which they can influence offspring.
KW - Gasterosteus aculeatus
KW - intergenerational plasticity
KW - nongenetic inheritance
KW - parental care
KW - paternal care
KW - phenotypic plasticity
KW - predation risk
KW - transgenerational plasticity
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U2 - 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.07.005
DO - 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.07.005
M3 - Article
C2 - 34658382
AN - SCOPUS:85112471235
SN - 0003-3472
VL - 179
SP - 267
EP - 277
JO - Animal Behaviour
JF - Animal Behaviour
ER -