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Are species differences in maternal effects arising from maternal care adaptive?
K M Benowitz1, K J Moody, A J Moore
1Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
Journal of Evolutionary Biology
|December 20, 2014
Summary
Parental care influences offspring development, but specific maternal effects may not be adaptive. Burying beetle studies show maternal care benefits are general, not species-optimized, suggesting evolution driven by direct effects.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Behavioral ecology
- Parental care
Background:
- Parental care is crucial for offspring development and survival.
- While parental care evolves adaptively, specific maternal effects within care may not be optimized.
- Burying beetles exhibit elaborate parental care, including direct feeding, making them ideal for studying maternal effects.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether maternal effects in burying beetle parental care are species-specific and adaptive.
- To determine if maternal effects are optimized within species or if they represent general adaptations.
- To explore the evolutionary drivers of species differences in maternal effects.
Main Methods:
- Interspecific cross-fostering design using burying beetle species Nicrophorus orbicollis and Nicrophorus vespilloides.
- Full-factorial experimental design to assess parental care duration, offspring development time, and mass.
- Comparison of offspring reared by conspecific versus heterospecific parents.
Main Results:
- Nicrophorus orbicollis provided care for a longer duration irrespective of the offspring's species.
- Offspring exhibited species-specific direct effects; N. orbicollis larvae were larger and developed slower than N. vespilloides, regardless of the caregiver.
- Nicrophorus vespilloides maternal care accelerated offspring development for both species, with no significant interactions between caretaker and recipient species.
Conclusions:
- Maternal effects in burying beetle parental care appear to be general rather than optimized within species.
- The evolution of species differences in maternal effects may be linked to direct effects on offspring, driven by selection on those direct effects.
- Findings suggest a lack of coadaptation between parental care and offspring performance specific to each species.
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