scholarly journals Larval environmental conditions influence plasticity in resource use by adults in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides

Evolution ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Schrader ◽  
Benjamin J. M. Jarrett ◽  
Rebecca M. Kilner
Keyword(s):  
Resource Use ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides

scholarly journals Inbred burying beetles suffer fitness costs from making poor decisions

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1881) ◽  
pp. 20180419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Richardson ◽  
Pauline Comin ◽  
Per T. Smiseth
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Inbreeding Depression ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Fitness Costs ◽  
Individual Decision ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Individual Decision Making ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides

There is growing interest in how environmental conditions, such as resource availability, can modify the severity of inbreeding depression. However, little is known about whether inbreeding depression is also associated with differences in individual decision-making. For example, decisions about how many offspring to produce are often based upon the prevailing environmental conditions, such as resource availability, and getting these decisions wrong may have important fitness consequences for both parents and offspring. We tested for effects of inbreeding on individual decision-making in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, which uses the size of a carrion resource to make decisions about number of offspring. Both inbred and outbred females adjusted their initial decisions about number of eggs to lay based on carcass size. However, when we forced individuals to update this initial decision by providing them with a different-sized carcass partway through reproduction, inbred females failed to update their decision about how many larvae to cull. Consequently, inbred females reared too many larvae, resulting in negative fitness consequences in the form of smaller offspring and reduced female post-reproductive condition. Our study provides novel insights into the effects of inbreeding by showing that poor decision-making by inbred individuals can negatively affect fitness.

scholarly journals Experience does not alter alternative mating tactics in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig A. Walling ◽  
Clare E. Stamper ◽  
Claire L. Salisbury ◽  
Allen J. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Mating Tactics ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Mating Tactics ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides

scholarly journals Evolutionary change in the construction of the nursery environment when parents are prevented from caring for their young directly

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (48) ◽  
pp. e2102450118
Author(s):  
Ana Duarte ◽  
Darren Rebar ◽  
Allysa C. Hallett ◽  
Benjamin J. M. Jarrett ◽  
Rebecca M. Kilner
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Experimental Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Change ◽  
Direct Care ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Extended Phenotype ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Cross Fostering

Parental care can be partitioned into traits that involve direct engagement with offspring and traits that are expressed as an extended phenotype and influence the developmental environment, such as constructing a nursery. Here, we use experimental evolution to test whether parents can evolve modifications in nursery construction when they are experimentally prevented from supplying care directly to offspring. We exposed replicate experimental populations of burying beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides) to different regimes of posthatching care by allowing larvae to develop in the presence (Full Care) or absence of parents (No Care). After only 13 generations of experimental evolution, we found an adaptive evolutionary increase in the pace at which parents in the No Care populations converted a dead body into a carrion nest for larvae. Cross-fostering experiments further revealed that No Care larvae performed better on a carrion nest prepared by No Care parents than did Full Care larvae. We conclude that parents construct the nursery environment in relation to their effectiveness at supplying care directly, after offspring are born. When direct care is prevented entirely, they evolve to make compensatory adjustments to the nursery in which their young will develop. The rapid evolutionary change observed in our experiments suggests there is considerable standing genetic variation for parental care traits in natural burying beetle populations—for reasons that remain unclear.

scholarly journals Maternal effects alter the severity of inbreeding depression in the offspring

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1838) ◽  
pp. 20161023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Pilakouta ◽  
Per T. Smiseth
Keyword(s):  
Maternal Effects ◽  
Inbreeding Depression ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Larval Survival ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Selection For

A maternal effect is a causal influence of the maternal phenotype on the offspring phenotype over and above any direct effects of genes. There is abundant evidence that maternal effects can have a major impact on offspring fitness. Yet, no previous study has investigated the potential role of maternal effects in influencing the severity of inbreeding depression in the offspring. Inbreeding depression is a reduction in the fitness of inbred offspring relative to outbred offspring. Here, we tested whether maternal effects due to body size alter the magnitude of inbreeding depression in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides . We found that inbreeding depression in larval survival was more severe for offspring of large females than offspring of small females. This might be due to differences in how small and large females invest in an inbred brood because of their different prospects for future breeding opportunities. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence for a causal effect of the maternal phenotype on the severity of inbreeding depression in the offspring. In natural populations that are subject to inbreeding, maternal effects may drive variation in inbreeding depression and therefore contribute to variation in the strength and direction of selection for inbreeding avoidance.

scholarly journals Predictable gene expression related to behavioral variation in parenting

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 402-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle M Benowitz ◽  
Elizabeth C McKinney ◽  
Christopher B Cunningham ◽  
Allen J Moore
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Behavioral Changes ◽  
Biological Functions ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Behavioral Transitions ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Differential Gene ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Single Phenotype

AbstractDifferential gene expression has been associated with transitions between behavioral states for a wide variety of organisms and behaviors. Heterochrony, genetic toolkits, and predictable pathways underlying behavioral transitions have been hypothesized to explain the relationship between transcription and behavioral changes. Less studied is how variation in transcription is related to variation within a behavior, and if the genes that are associated with this variation are predictable. Here, we adopt an evolutionary systems biology perspective to address 2 hypotheses relating differential expression to changes within and between behavior. We predicted fewer genes will be associated with variation within a behavior than with transitions between states, and the genes underlying variation within a behavior will represent a narrower set of biological functions. We tested for associations with parenting variation within a state with a set of genes known a priori to be differentially expressed (DE) between parenting states in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. As predicted, we found that far fewer genes are DE related to variation within parenting. Moreover, these were not randomly distributed among categories or pathways in the gene set we tested and primarily involved genes associated with neurotransmission. We suggest that this means candidate genes will be easier to identify for associations within a behavior, as descriptions of behavioral state may include more than a single phenotype.

scholarly journals Early‐life effects on body size in each sex interact to determine reproductive success in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (12) ◽  
pp. 1725-1734
Author(s):  
Eleanor K. Bladon ◽  
Sinead English ◽  
Sonia Pascoal ◽  
Rebecca M. Kilner
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides
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