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Parental effects and the evolution of phenotypic memory.

B Kuijper1,2, R A Johnstone3

  • 1CoMPLEX, Center of Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and Experimental Biology, University College London, London, UK.

Journal of Evolutionary Biology
|October 23, 2015
PubMed
Summary

Parental effects, a form of nongenetic inheritance, evolve differently based on habitat stability. Stable environments favor positive parental effects, while unstable ones favor negative parental effects, influencing offspring phenotype transmission.

Keywords:
dispersalenvironmental stochasticityepigeneticsinclusive fitnessinherited informationmaternal effectsnongenetic inheritancephenotypic plasticitytheorytransgenerational effects

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Ecology
  • Genetics

Background:

  • Nongenetic inheritance, including parental and grandparental effects, is increasingly recognized.
  • The specific ecological conditions driving the evolution of these heritable effects are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To systematically explore the evolution of parental effects in a structured population experiencing local environmental changes.
  • To determine how habitat stability and environmental variability influence the direction and fidelity of parental effects.

Main Methods:

  • Modeling the evolution of parental effects in a patch-structured population.
  • Analyzing the conditions under which parental effects are favored over bet-hedging strategies.
  • Investigating the impact of environmental stability and abundance on parental effect transmission.

Main Results:

  • Parental effects are favored when selection produces an offspring mix dependent on parental phenotype, unlike bet-hedging.
  • Positive parental effects (parent-offspring similarity) are favored in stable habitats with equally abundant environmental states.
  • Unstable habitats favor negative parental effects, with transmission fidelity sensitive to environmental state asymmetries.

Conclusions:

  • Ecological conditions, particularly habitat stability and environmental variability, critically shape the evolution of nongenetic inheritance.
  • Parental effects can lead to long-term heritable phenotypes, with the direction and fidelity contingent on environmental dynamics.
  • Understanding these dynamics is key to comprehending the persistence and adaptive significance of nongenetic inheritance.