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

父母照顾的质量影响后代的健康。在驯化的实验室啮齿动物中，长期受到压力的母亲的幼崽得到低质量的照顾，导致幼崽产生高度反应性的压力反应。受影响的幼崽成年后会有很高的应激激素水平，这可能对它们未来的生存和繁殖产生严重影响。本研究探讨了压力的母亲，产妇护理不良，和后代的压力反应和生存在德古（degu），野生，自由生活的啮齿动物之间的关系。德格斯实行一种独特的繁殖策略，称为“多元繁殖与共同照顾”，多个母亲合作，以提高对方的幼崽。 这项研究还将探讨这种独特的社交策略是否能缓冲后代对产后压力的承受能力。 通过操纵母亲的压力水平，并在现场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的、自由生活的啮齿动物中得到证实。这项研究将产生更广泛的影响，因为它将解决父母照顾和后代生存之间的联系，这是生态学和应激生理学中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纳入本科课程的每周博客进行科学宣传，向老年人和初中/高中女生介绍，本科研究机会，并支持年轻科学家完成她的博士研究。

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.