Effects of mothers’ and fathers’ experience with predation risk on the behavioral development of their offspring in threespined sticklebacks

Abstract

Stressors experienced by parents can influence the behavioral development of their offspring. Here, we review recent studies in threespined sticklebacks (a species in which males are the sole providers of parental care) showing that when parents are exposed to an ecologically relevant stressor (predation risk), there are consequences for offspring. For example, female sticklebacks exposed to predation risk produce eggs with higher concentrations of cortisol, a stress hormone, and offspring with altered behavior and physiology. Male sticklebacks exposed to predation risk produce offspring that are less active, smaller, and in poorer condition. The precise mechanisms by which maternal and paternal experiences with predators affect offspring phenotypes are under investigation, and could include steroid hormones, olfactory cues and/or parental behavior. As in other species, some of the consequences of parental exposure to predation risk for offspring in sticklebacks might be adaptive, but depend on the stressor, the reliability of the parental and offspring environments and the evolutionary history of the population.

Proximate causes and consequences of intergenerational influences of salient sensory experience

“…While such responses are influenced by experiences that come to be associated with these stimuli, accumulating evidence suggests that the legacy of parental experiences with stimuli can significantly shape responses in future generations. Organisms mount defense responses to physical and chemical cues from predators, but the development of such responses can arise de novo during development as a consequence of parental exposure to these same predators . Environmental insults like droughts, endocrine disruptors and dietary manipulations influence responses of offspring in both plants and animals even with the offspring not directly experiencing the insults .…”

The social construction of the social epigenome and the larger biological context

“…Epigenetics has also become an interest in research in ecology, evolutionary biology, and studies of animal behavior as I brie y describe here. Research in these elds does not usually examine epigenetic mechanisms, in most cases relating epigenetics to the inheritance of changes in DNA methylation [13][14][15][16]. Unlike in studies in molecular and cell biology, there are no clear-cut de nitions of epigenetics.…”

“…In a study on parental effects and their inheritance in crickets, epigenetic modi cation as changes in the DNA methylation pattern is only a special case of 'nongenetic' inheritance [13]. A study on the behavioral development in sticklebacks holds that a mother's detrimental condition in uences the expression of hundreds of genes in embryos, including noncoding RNAs, genes involved in epigenetic modi cations and genes involved in neural growth [14]. Another study on 'nongenetic' inheritance in sticklebacks does not suggest mechanisms or mention epigenetics [15].…”

Proximate causes and consequences of intergenerational influences of salient sensory experience

“…While such responses are influenced by experiences that come to be associated with these stimuli, accumulating evidence suggests that the legacy of parental experiences with stimuli can significantly shape responses in future generations. Organisms mount defense responses to physical and chemical cues from predators, but the development of such responses can arise de novo during development as a consequence of parental exposure to these same predators [1,2].…”