The genetic basis of maternal behaviour and parent-offspring conflict resolution in mice

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In mammals, mothers provide the resources and early environment in which young develop and are thus the most influential factor determining individual phenotypes. Individual development is the result of own genotype (direct genetic effects) and interactions with maternal genotype (indirect genetic effects) variation in which causes different maternal behaviours and levels of maternal provisioning. How much mothers invest in their young is subject to a conflict between mother and offspring where offspring will typically demand more than is optimal for the mother. The resolution of this conflict is affected both by offspring and maternal genotype, however, the relative importance of the two remains unclear. Furthermore, theory assumes genetic variation for both parental care and offspring behaviour to allow the coevolution of the two, often leading to coadaptation of maternal and offspring traits that jointly yield high offspring fitness. Separating the effect of offspring and maternal genotype is crucial if we want to understand the genetic basis for early development and the individual factors that determine variation in phenotypes early in life but also in adulthood. I propose to address these issues using simple cross-fostering experiments in mice measuring biologically relevant maternal behaviours that are exhibited in natural environments, offspring provisioning and solicitation behaviour as a function of either maternal or offspring genotype. This will enable me to tease apart offspring and parental influences on conflict resolution over maternal provisioning and to determine the degree of coadaptation between offspring and parental traits. The proposed project will utilise mice of the recombinant inbred strain BXD, for which genomic marker data are available representing genetic variation found in wild populations of mice and employing established protocols to record phenotypic data. Using quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, I aim to identify regions of the genome that correlate with trait variation. The results of the project will enable us to ascertain the relative contribution of direct genetic effects (offspring genotype) and indirect genetic effects (maternal genetic effects) on the level of maternal investment and maternal behaviours. Furthermore, finding specific QTL and candidate genes for key maternal behaviours that modulate individual development can inform future research aiming to identify the underlying genes.