The impact of predation risk and of parasitic infection on parental care in brooding crustaceans

Arundell, Katherine L.; Wedell, Nina; Dunn, Alison M.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2014.08.002

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 64 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Our results suggest that infected females maintained their level of care at the expense of allocating more resources towards immunity. Our results are similar to those of a recent study on the amphipods Crangonyx pseudogracilis and Gammarus duebeni (Arundell et al, 2014). In this study, infection by a microsporidian did not affect brood care behaviour or the duration of brooding of females.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…By maintaining their level of care, infected females may ensure that offspring receive the necessary amount of care and produce offspring with a similar survival and body size as offspring of uninfected females. This strategy might allow infected females to maintain their reproductive output (Arundell et al, 2014), but might come at a cost in terms of reduced survival and future reproductive success. Burying beetles can produce multiple broods (Creighton et al, 2009) and tend to gain mass during first reproductive, which is positively correlated with life span (Gray et al, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Carry on caring: infected females maintain their level of parental care despite suffering high mortality

Ratz

Monteith

Vale

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Parental care is a key component of an organism’s reproductive strategy that is thought to trade-off with allocation towards immunity. Yet it is unclear how caring parents respond to pathogens: do infected parents reduce their amount of care as a sickness behaviour or simply from being ill, or do they prioritise their offspring by maintaining high levels of care? Here we explored the consequences of infection by the pathogen Serratia marcescens on mortality, time spent providing care, reproductive output, and expression of immune genes of female parents in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. We compared untreated control females with infected females that were inoculated with live bacteria, immune-challenged females that were inoculated with heat-killed bacteria, and injured females that were injected with buffer. We found that infected and immune-challenged females mounted an immune response and that infected females suffered increased mortality. Nevertheless, infected and immune-challenged females maintained their normal level of care and reproductive output. There was thus no evidence that infection led to either a decrease or an increase in parental care or reproductive output. Our results show that parental care, which is generally highly flexible, can remain remarkably robust and consistent despite the elevated mortality caused by infection by pathogens. Overall, these findings suggest that infected females maintain a high level of parental care; a strategy that may ensure that offspring receive the necessary amount of care but that might be detrimental to the parents’ own survival or that may even facilitate disease transmission to offspring.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carry on caring: infected females maintain their level of parental care despite suffering high mortality

Ratz

Monteith

Vale

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A secondary factor, which may drive males to breed with infected females, is competition from conspecifics. This may regulate and balance the parasite avoidance behaviour, allowing for reproduction but limiting parasite transmission [128]. Parallel studies in terrestrial systems have found that European woodlice (Armadillidium vulgare) females infected with Wolbachia sp.…”

Section: (D) Avoidance Of Infected Conspecifics and Matesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parasite avoidance behaviours in aquatic environments

Behringer

Karvonen

Bojko

2018

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Parasites, including macroparasites, protists, fungi, bacteria and viruses, can impose a heavy burden upon host animals. However, hosts are not without defences. One aspect of host defence, behavioural avoidance, has been studied in the terrestrial realm for over 50 years, but was first reported from the aquatic environment approximately 20 years ago. Evidence has mounted on the importance of parasite avoidance behaviours and it is increasingly apparent that there are core similarities in the function and benefit of this defence mechanism between terrestrial and aquatic systems. However, there are also stark differences driven by the unique biotic and abiotic characteristics of terrestrial and aquatic (marine and freshwater) environments. Here, we review avoidance behaviours in a comparative framework and highlight the characteristics of each environment that drive differences in the suite of mechanisms and cues that animals use to avoid parasites. We then explore trade-offs, potential negative effects of avoidance behaviour and the influence of human activities on avoidance behaviours. We conclude that avoidance behaviours are understudied in aquatic environments but can have significant implications for disease ecology and epidemiology, especially considering the accelerating emergence and re-emergence of parasites.This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Evolution of pathogen and parasite avoidance behaviours'.

show abstract

“…Furthermore, given that gamete-mediated effects are generally weak across multiple meta-analyses [ 60 , 61 ] and that Steiger [ 27 ] suggests parental care effects to far outweigh prenatal effects, our hypothesis is that the impact of the parental care environment will far outweigh the impact of gamete-mediated maternal and paternal effects alone. Additionally, following previous research on the impact of immediate risk of parental care intensity [ 22 , 62 , 63 ], we expect that high-risk caring parents that were lifelong exposed to high-risk prior to parental care will likewise provide less care to offspring. Furthermore, as parental care intensity has been shown to directly modulate antipredator responses in offspring [ 23 , 24 ], we predict that parental care intensity may be a major mechanism that transmits risk across generations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paternal care effects outweigh gamete-mediated and personal environment effects during the transgenerational estimation of risk in fathead minnows

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Individuals can estimate risk by integrating prenatal with postnatal and personal information, but the relative importance of different information sources during the transgenerational response is unclear. The estimated level of risk can be tested using the cognitive rule of risk allocation, which postulates that under consistent high-risk, antipredator efforts should decrease so that individual metabolic requirements can be satisfied. Here we conduct a comprehensive study on transgenerational risk transmission by testing whether risk allocation occurs across 12 treatments that consist of different maternal, paternal, parental care (including cross-fostering) and offspring risk environment combinations in the fathead minnow Pimephales promelas, a small cyprinid fish with alloparental care. In each risk environment, we manipulated perceived risk by continuously exposing individuals from birth onwards to conspecific alarm cues or a control water treatment. Using 2810 1-month old individuals, we then estimated shoaling behaviour prior to and subsequent to a novel mechanical predator disturbance. Results Overall, shoals estimating risk to be high were denser during the prestimulus period, and, following the risk allocation hypothesis, resumed normal shoaling densities faster following the disturbance. Treatments involving parental care consistently induced densest shoals and greatest levels of risk allocation. Although prenatal risk environments did not relate to paternal care intensity, greater care intensity induced more risk allocation when parents provided care for their own offspring as opposed to those that cross-fostered fry. In the absence of care, parental effects on shoaling density were relatively weak and personal environments modulated risk allocation only when parental risk was low. Conclusions Our study highlights the high relative importance of parental care as opposed to other information sources, and its function as a mechanism underlying transgenerational risk transmission.

show abstract

The impact of predation risk and of parasitic infection on parental care in brooding crustaceans

Cited by 12 publications

References 64 publications

Carry on caring: infected females maintain their level of parental care despite suffering high mortality

Carry on caring: infected females maintain their level of parental care despite suffering high mortality

Parasite avoidance behaviours in aquatic environments

Paternal care effects outweigh gamete-mediated and personal environment effects during the transgenerational estimation of risk in fathead minnows

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About