Maternal Effects in Insect Life Histories

Mousseau, Timothy A.; Dingle, Hugh

doi:10.1146/annurev.en.36.010191.002455

Cited by 617 publications

(337 citation statements)

References 90 publications

(39 reference statements)

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“…Maternal effects have been shown to be an important contributor to life history variation in insects (17). Since the grasshoppers in these experiments were first-generation offspring of field-caught animals, we cannot rigorously exclude parental influences on properties of cuticular lipids.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic and acclimatory variation in biophysical properties of insect cuticle lipids.

Gibbs

Mousseau

Crowe

1991

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Epicuticular lipids provide the primary barrier to water loss in insects and other terrestrial arthropods. Using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, we found that the melting temperatures for these lipids in the grasshopper Melanoplus sanguinipes varied by over 100C between individuals. The most significant determinant of lipid melting temperature was geographic population, followed by family effects and rearing regime. The width of the phase transition also showed population and family effects. Differences in lipid phase properties were correlated with habitat temperature. Our results provide evidence for genetically based intraspecific variation in epicuticular lipids and have important implications for physiological studies of water balance in arthropods.A rapid increase in water loss above a certain "critical" temperature has led several investigators to conclude that phase transitions of epicuticular lipids are important in determining rates of evaporative water loss in terrestrial arthropods (1-5). According to this hypothesis, as the lipids melt they lose their waterproofing abilities. The biophysical properties of surface lipids necessarily reflect their chemical composition, which is mainly long-chain saturated hydrocarbons, as well as other hydrophobic compounds (6, 7). There are tremendous differences in lipid composition between species, and this variation presumably is due in part to genetic differences, an idea exploited in efforts to use surface lipid composition as a taxonomic character (8). Environmental conditions, particularly temperature, also affect lipid composition, and these changes are correlated with interspecific differences in organismal water balance (9, 10).Surface lipid composition also varies within species, as a result of both genetic (11) and environmental (12, 13) factors. These changes have been used to infer differences in lipid properties, but the actual biophysical consequences of intraspecific variation in lipid composition have not been described. In this study, we used Fourier transform infrared (IR) spectroscopy to study genetic and acclimatory variation in cuticular lipid phase transitions, in cast skins of the lesser migratory grasshopper, Melanoplus sanguinipes.MATERIALS AND METHODS Specimens. The grasshoppers used in these studies were first-generation descendants of individuals collected from the field in the summer of 1989. Grasshoppers from 18 populations all over California were studied (Table 1, Fig. 1). Field-caught animals were maintained and bred in the laboratory, and the eggs were collected and hatched. Nymphs were reared on a diet of lettuce and wheat bran under three environmental regimes: summer = 34WC, 15:9 LD (15 hr of light and 9 hr of dark); fall = 29"C, 11:13 LD; average = 32"C, 13:11 LD. Summer and fall conditions were chosen to simulate actual field conditions during these seasons, as indicated by weather station data (14). Cast skins (exuvae) were collected daily and were stored at -20'C under N2 until analyzed. Storage had no appar...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic and acclimatory variation in biophysical properties of insect cuticle lipids.

Gibbs

Mousseau

Crowe

1991

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…While we focus on maternal‐stress effects in vertebrates, maternal effects via other mechanisms have been documented in a variety of systems, including plants (e.g., Schuler & Orrock, 2012) and arthropods (Mousseau & Dingle, 1991) as well as reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals (Mousseau & Fox, 1998; Uller, 2008). Several of the key predictions from our framework may extend to these groups as well, where they can be useful in generating both species‐specific predictions and testing environmentally specific hypotheses in the field.…”

Section: Future Directions: Extending Model Predictions and Applicatimentioning

confidence: 99%

Error management theory and the adaptive significance of transgenerational maternal‐stress effects on offspring phenotype

Sheriff

Dantzer

Love

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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It is well established that circulating maternal stress hormones (glucocorticoids, GCs) can alter offspring phenotype. There is also a growing body of empirical work, within ecology and evolution, indicating that maternal GCs link the environment experienced by the mother during gestation with changes in offspring phenotype. These changes are considered to be adaptive if the maternal environment matches the offspring's environment and maladaptive if it does not. While these ideas are conceptually sound, we lack a testable framework that can be used to investigate the fitness costs and benefits of altered offspring phenotypes across relevant future environments. We present error management theory as the foundation for a framework that can be used to assess the adaptive potential of maternal stress hormones on offspring phenotype across relevant postnatal scenarios. To encourage rigorous testing of our framework, we provide field‐testable hypotheses regarding the potential adaptive role of maternal stress across a diverse array of taxa and life histories, as well as suggestions regarding how our framework might provide insight into past, present, and future research. This perspective provides an informed lens through which to design and interpret experiments on the effects of maternal stress, provides a framework for predicting and testing variation in maternal stress across and within taxa, and also highlights how rapid environmental change that induces maternal stress may lead to evolutionary traps.

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“…The consequence of incomplete epigenetic resetting in germ cells is that environmental conditions encountered in one generation can have effects on the development of the next generation or even many generations later. It is generally accepted that effects which span a single generation (parental effects) may increase fitness by adjusting offspring phenotype to local conditions [27][28][29][30][31]. More stable forms of epigenetic inheritance have been suggested to serve a similar function (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When is incomplete epigenetic resetting in germ cells favoured by natural selection?

2015

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Resetting of epigenetic marks, such as DNA methylation, in germ cells or early embryos is not always complete. Epigenetic states may therefore persist, decay or accumulate across generations. In spite of mounting empirical evidence for incomplete resetting, it is currently poorly understood whether it simply reflects stochastic noise or plays an adaptive role in phenotype determination. Here, we use a simple model to show that incomplete resetting can be adaptive in heterogeneous environments. Transmission of acquired epigenetic states prevents mismatched phenotypes when the environment changes infrequently relative to generation time and when maternal and environmental cues are unreliable. We discuss how these results may help to interpret the emerging data on transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in plants and animals.

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Maternal Effects in Insect Life Histories

Cited by 617 publications

References 90 publications

Genetic and acclimatory variation in biophysical properties of insect cuticle lipids.

Genetic and acclimatory variation in biophysical properties of insect cuticle lipids.

Error management theory and the adaptive significance of transgenerational maternal‐stress effects on offspring phenotype

When is incomplete epigenetic resetting in germ cells favoured by natural selection?

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