DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Maternal effects of stress in a plural-breeding rodent

父母照顾的质量会影响后代的健康。在家养的实验室啮齿动物中，母亲长期承受压力的幼崽得到的护理质量较低，导致幼崽产生高度反应性的应激反应。受影响的幼崽成年后会有很高的应激激素水平，这可能会对它们未来的生存和生殖产出产生严重的后果。这项研究考察了母亲的压力、糟糕的母亲照顾和后代的压力反应和在野生自由生活啮齿动物德古氏中的存活之间的关系。迪格斯采用了一种独特的生殖策略，即多个母亲相互合作抚养对方的幼崽，这一策略被称为“集体照顾下的多胎繁殖”。这项研究还将询问这种独特的社交策略是否可以缓冲后代免受产后压力的影响。通过操控母亲的压力水平，并在野外和实验室实验中测量幼崽的压力激素水平，这项研究将全面描述压力、发育和最终生存之间的联系。这种联系从未在野生自由生活的啮齿动物身上得到证实。这项研究将产生更广泛的影响，因为它将解决父母照料和后代存活之间的联系，这是生态学和应激生理学中一个尚未解决的主要问题。这项研究的进一步更广泛的影响将包括通过每周博客进行科学宣传，并将其纳入本科课程的课程，向老年人和初中/高中女孩发表演讲，提供本科研究机会，以及支持一名完成博士研究的年轻科学家。

The quality of parental care influences offspring fitness. In domesticated laboratory rodents, pups that have chronically stressed mothers receive low quality care, leading pups to develop highly reactive stress responses. Affected pups will have high stress hormone levels as adults, which can have severe consequences on their future survival and reproductive output. This research examines the relationship between stressed mothers, poor maternal care, and the offspring stress response and survival in the degu (Octodon degus), a wild, free-living rodent. Degus practice a unique reproductive tactic called "plural breeding with communal care" where multiple mothers cooperate to raise each other's pups. This research also will ask whether this unique social strategy can buffer the offspring against post-natal stress. By manipulating the stress levels of mothers and measuring stress hormone levels in pups in both field and laboratory experiments, this research will provide a comprehensive description of the links between stress, development, and, ultimately, survival. This link has never been demonstrated in a wild, free-living rodent. This research will have broader impacts because it will address the link between parental care and offspring survival, which is a major unsolved problem in ecology and stress physiology. Further broader impacts of this research will include scientific outreach through a weekly blog that is incorporated into the curriculum of an undergraduate course, presentations to senior citizens and middle/high school girls, undergraduate research opportunities, and support for a young scientist completing her PhD research.