Do high females produce high quality sons? Maternal effects on fitness and fitness-related traits of male offspring in a social mammal

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Natural selection operates on traits that are heritable and influence the fitness of individuals. The study of fitness-related traits, of factors that influence these traits and of their heritability is thus fundamental to our understanding of evolutionary processes. Individual phenotypic traits are shaped by the individual’s genotype, environmental effects it experiences during development, or a combination of both. Because in mammals, the environment during development is provided mainly by the mother, female mammals are likely to have a strong impact on the physical and social development of their offspring. Maternal effects on fitness and fitness-related traits of male offspring however have never been investigated in mammals living under natural selection pressures in their natural environment. Here I propose to investigate the relationship between the phenotypic quality of females and the fitness and fitness-related traits of their male offspring in free-ranging spotted hyenas. The study will reveal whether social status and experience, the two most important determinants of female quality in spotted hyenas and many other social mammals, influence the fitness of offspring of the dispersing sex, how female quality transfers into offspring fitness and whether fitness-related traits influenced by maternal effects are heritable. A comparison of maternal effects on fitness and heritability of fitness-related traits of male hyenas, female hyenas and females of other species may further reveal whether maternal effects depend on characteristics such as the dispersal pattern and dominance relationships within and between the sexes.