Transgenerational effects of grandparental and parental diets combine with early-life learning to shape adaptive foraging phenotypes in Amblyseius swirskii

Abstract

Transgenerational effects abound in animals. While a great deal of research has been dedicated to the effects of maternal stressors such as diet deficiency, social deprivation or predation risk on offspring phenotypes, we have a poor understanding of the adaptive value of transgenerational effects spanning across multiple generations under benign conditions and the relative weight of multigenerational effects. Here we show that grandparental and parental diet experiences combine with personal early-life learning to form adaptive foraging phenotypes in adult plant-inhabiting predatory mites Amblyseius swirskii. Our findings provide insights into transgenerational plasticity caused by persistent versus varying conditions in multiple ancestral generations and show that transgenerational effects may be adaptive in non-matching ancestor and offspring environments.

Development, survival, and reproduction of Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot (Acari: Phytoseiidae) feeding on fresh versus frozen eggs of Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae)

“…Means followed by different letters indicate a significant difference within the same life stage (ART ANOVA post hoc comparison: p < 0.01). stress, social experience, and predation pressure, individuals face are passed on to provoke phenotypic variation in their offspring (Li andZhang 2019; Schausberger andRendon 2022). Nevertheless, the different diets (fresh or frozen eggs) given to P. persilimis mothers did not affect the consumption and development of their offspring.…”

The operational sex ratio experienced by mothers modulates the expression of sons’ alternative reproductive tactics in spider mites

“…The vast majority of studies on conditional ARTs focused on factors in the personal environment but, in concert with previous studies (Hunt and Simmons 2000;Pienaar and Greeff 2003;Buzatto et al 2012;, our study provides evidence that transgenerational effects also play an important role in the evolution and expression of male ARTs. Teasing apart the relative weight and interactions of immediate environmental factors, including social factors such as population density and OSR, experienced by males and environmental factors experienced by multiple ancestor generations (Schausberger and Rendon 2022) are promising future challenges in ART research.…”

Grand challenges and bold opportunities in arachnid ecology and behavior

“…Duran et al, 2021), group-living (e.g. Avileś andGuevara, 2017, Schausberger, et al, 2021b), sexual selection (Proctor, 1998;Herberstein et al, 2014;Oku, 2014;Andrade, 2019;Peretti et al, 2021), or phenotypic plasticity ( Agrawal et al, 2002, Walzer andSchausberger, 2011;Evans et al, 2019;Yip et al, 2021;Schausberger and Rendon, 2022), just to mention some areas. One of the cornerstones of Behavioral Ecology is quantifying the adaptive value of a given behavior.…”

“…This applies to both within-and transgenerational plasticity and their interaction (e.g. Bonduriansky and Day, 2009;Stamps and Bell, 2021;Schausberger and Rendon, 2022). Furthering our understanding of behavioral variation and how it underlies variation in ability to cope with contemporary human-induced, rapid environmental change (HIREC), and finding out how HIRECs and climate (or global) change affect the ecology and behavior of arachnids are urgent tasks.…”