Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2023
Höfundar / Authors: Bjarni Kristófer Kristjánsson, Katja Räsänen
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: Hólar University
Kynnir / Presenter: Alessandra Schnider
An individual’s phenotype is the target of natural selection. The phenotype and thus, fitness can be strongly influenced by transgenerational effects. For example, maternal effects, often mediated through egg size and composition, commonly affect offspring performance. However, experiments predominantly focus on early developmental stages, hence the long-term effects of maternal effects are still poorly understood. We here present data from a multigenerational plasticity experiment, where we test the effects of contrasting environmental conditions on maternal investment and, subsequently, the contribution of maternal effects on offspring performance. To this end, threespine stickleback from lake Mývatn were reared in contrasting temperatures (12°C versus 21°C) and dietary conditions (midge versus cladoceran) across two generations. We recorded egg and clutch size, hatching success and juvenile weight at 1300 degree days (2/3.5 months). Females reared at 12°C and on cladoceran produced fewer, but larger eggs compared to females reared at 21°C and on midges. This variation in egg size resulted in higher hatching success and growth in offspring from larger eggs. Thus, maternal environment substantially affected offspring performance long past early development through differential maternal investment. This study demonstrates that transgenerational effects can penetrate far into juvenile development and the importance of multigenerational experiments to study these effects.