Paternal predatory risk alters parental behavior and offspring phenotypes in biparental Brandt's voles
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View abstract on PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.Paternal exposure to predation risk impacts offspring behavior and stress responses in Brandt's voles. These effects vary based on when the father experienced the risk and parental care presence, influencing adaptive responses.
Area Of Science
- Behavioral Ecology
- Evolutionary Biology
- Reproductive Biology
Background
- Paternal experiences can influence offspring phenotypes through maternal pathways and sperm epigenetics.
- The impact of paternal predation risk on offspring in biparental species remains largely unexplored.
Purpose Of The Study
- To investigate how paternal exposure to cat odor (CO), a predation risk, before and after conception affects anxiety and antipredator behaviors in Brandt's voles offspring.
- To understand the role of parental care in mediating these paternal effects.
Main Methods
- Exposing male Brandt's voles to cat odor (CO) either preconceptionally or postconceptionally.
- Assessing offspring anxiety-like behavior, antipredator responses, and corticosterone levels at different life stages.
- Observing maternal and paternal investment and grooming behaviors.
Main Results
- Preconception CO exposure reduced maternal investment in single-mother-reared offspring.
- Postconception CO exposure increased paternal investment and grooming in biparental care.
- Both paternal exposures increased adolescent anxiety but led to divergent adult phenotypes and stress responses.
- Adaptive responses to predation risk were only observed in the presence of both parents.
Conclusions
- Paternal predation risk exposure influences offspring phenotypes in age-specific and pathway-dependent ways in biparental voles.
- Parental care dynamics are crucial for mediating the effects of paternal environmental experiences on offspring.
- Only biparental care facilitates adaptive responses to high predation risk environments.
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