The evolution of anticipatory maternal effects versus maternal condition transfer effects in Trinidadian killifish

特立尼达鳉鱼预期母体效应与母体条件转移效应的演变

• 批准号: 2236741
• 负责人: Matthew Walsh
• 金额: $ 68.63万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Arlington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-03-15 至 2026-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2236741&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: evolution; anticipatory; maternal; effects; versus

It has long been known that changes in the environment can influence the ability of mothers to provision their offspring. Therefore, when should mom evolve to anticipate a change in the environment to best provision her offspring? This research will address this question by testing hypotheses regarding the ecological conditions that drive maternal offspring provisioning strategies. The work focuses on Trinidadian killifish, which exhibit maternal provisioning strategies that are easy to quantify. Additionally, killifish experience a wide range of ecological conditions. Finally, killifish are easy to manipulate, allowing for experimental tests of how natural selection influences offspring provisioning. Therefore, this research is well-positioned to provide new insights into how and why maternal provisioning strategies evolve. The work has broad implications for understanding the mechanisms by which organisms respond to environmental change. Further, it will improve researchers’ ability to forecast how species respond to environmental stressors. The research goals will be combined with a plan for broader impacts that that uses killifish as a model to improve teaching, engage undergraduates from underrepresented groups in research at a Hispanic serving institution, and provide public outreach.Much research has explored whether mothers respond to predictable shifts in environmental signals by modifying offspring phenotypes to best match future conditions. Yet, there is little evidence for the existence of such ‘anticipatory maternal effects’. This shows that our understanding of the evolution of maternal effects is incomplete. 'Maternal condition transfer effects' represents an alternative to anticipatory effects that occur when the environment experienced by females during development influences offspring fitness. These effects are not driven by external signals but are instead a byproduct of past environmental quality. Condition transfer effects have received far less attention that anticipatory effects but are likely quite widespread. Interestingly, little work has considered the conditions that favor the evolution condition transfer vs. anticipatory effects. This project will use populations of killifish on the island of Trinidad to pursue three central goals. The research will: (1) determine if predator-mediated divergence in resource availability favors evolutionary shifts in maternal effects (i.e., condition transfer vs. anticipatory effects). (2) Test the connection between divergent natural selection, maternal condition, and offspring fitness via ‘offspring outplant experiments’. (3) Experimentally evaluate the influence of resource availability on the evolution of maternal effects via long-term perturbations performed in natural streams.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

人们早就知道，环境的变化会影响母亲养育后代的能力。因此，母亲应该在什么时候进化到预测环境的变化，以便最好地为她的后代提供食物？这项研究将通过测试关于驱动母体后代供应战略的生态条件的假设来解决这个问题。这项工作的重点是特里尼迪亚的千里鱼，这种鱼展示了易于量化的母体供应策略。此外，剑鱼还经历了广泛的生态条件。最后，千里鱼很容易操纵，允许对自然选择如何影响后代供应进行实验测试。因此，这项研究很好地为产妇提供战略如何以及为什么演变提供了新的见解。这项工作对于理解生物体对环境变化的反应机制具有广泛的意义。此外，这将提高研究人员预测物种如何应对环境压力的能力。研究目标将与一项更广泛的影响计划相结合，该计划以千里鱼为榜样来改善教学，吸引来自西班牙裔服务机构的未被充分代表群体的本科生参与研究，并提供公共出行。许多研究探索了母亲是否通过修改后代的表型来应对环境信号的可预测变化，以最好地匹配未来的条件。然而，几乎没有证据表明这种“预期的母体效应”的存在。这表明我们对母体效应演化的理解是不完整的。“母体条件传递效应”代表了一种替代预期效应的方法，即当雌性在发育过程中所经历的环境影响后代健康时，预期效应就会发生。这些影响不是由外部信号驱动的，而是过去环境质量的副产品。条件迁移效应受到的关注比预期效应少得多，但可能相当普遍。有趣的是，很少有研究考虑有利于进化条件转移与预期效果的条件。该项目将利用特立尼达岛上的千里鱼种群来实现三个主要目标。这项研究将：(1)确定捕食者在资源可获得性上的差异是否有利于母体效应(即条件转移与预期效应)的进化转变。(2)通过“子代外植实验”，检验不同自然选择、母体条件和子代适合度之间的关系。(3)通过实验评估资源的可获得性对自然溪流中的长期扰动对母体效应演变的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。