DISSERTATION RESEARCH: A Hormonal Mechanism for the Maternal Transduction of Ecological Conditions to the Avian Embryo

当雌性以一种不仅仅归因于后代基因的方式改变她的后代时，就会发生母性效应。这些影响通常受到母体生态环境的影响，但生态条件如何通过母体传递给其后代却知之甚少。这项建议涉及调查的激素机制，母亲鸟类修改鸟类胚胎的激素环境，根据食物的可利用性在母体环境。 对美洲红隼的初步研究结果表明，食物的可获得性会影响产蛋雌性的血浆催乳素水平，她的血浆催乳素会影响她在蛋黄中沉积的雄激素水平，蛋黄雄激素会影响后代的存活。然而，目前还不知道食物是否会影响蛋黄雄激素水平。在这个提议中，食物的可获得性将被操纵，以确定它如何影响蛋黄雄激素水平。母体效应在自然界中是普遍存在的，发生在许多植物物种，昆虫和所有类别的脊椎动物。这项研究可能揭示了一种机制，生态条件，如食物的可用性可能会转导到鸟类胚胎。从环境，通过母亲，和后代的机械联系已被描述在很少，如果有的话。

Maternal effects occur when a female modifies her offspring in a manner not attributable solely to the offspring's genes. Often these effects are influenced by the ecological environment of the mother, but how ecological conditions are transmitted through the mother to her offspring are poorly understood. This proposal involves the investigation of the hormonal mechanisms by which mother birds modify the avian embryo's hormonal milieu according to food availability in the maternal environment. Preliminary findings in the American kestrel indicate that food availability influences the laying female's blood-plasma levels of the hormone prolactin, that her plasma prolactin influences how much androgen hormone she deposits in her egg yolks, and that yolk androgens affect offspring survival. However, it is not known if food affects yolk androgen levels. In this proposal, food availability will be manipulated to determine how it affects yolk androgen levels.Maternal effects are ubiquitous in nature, occurring in numerous plant species, insects, and all classes of vertebrates. This study may reveal a mechanism by which ecological conditions such as food availability may be transduced to the avian embryo. A mechanistic link from the environment, through the mother, and to the offspring has been described in few if any organisms.