Effects of paternal phenotype and environmental variability on age and size at maturity in a male dimorphic mite |
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Authors: | Isabel M Smallegange |
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Institution: | (1) Division of Biology, Imperial College London, Silwood Park, Ascot, SL5 7PY, UK |
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Abstract: | Investigating how the environment affects age and size at maturity of individuals is crucial to understanding how changes
in the environment affect population dynamics through the biology of a species. Paternal phenotype, maternal, and offspring
environment may crucially influence these traits, but to my knowledge, their combined effects have not yet been tested. Here,
I found that in bulb mites (Rhizoglyphus robini), maternal nutrition, offspring nutrition, and paternal phenotype (males are fighters, able to kill other mites, or benign
scramblers) interactively affected offspring age and size at maturity. The largest effect occurred when both maternal and
offspring nutrition was poor: in that case offspring from fighter sires required a significantly longer development time than
offspring from scrambler sires. Investigating parental effects on the relationship between age and size at maturity revealed
no paternal effects, and only for females was its shape influenced by maternal nutrition. Overall, this reaction norm was
nonlinear. These non-genetic intergenerational effects may play a complex, yet unexplored role in influencing population fluctuations—possibly
explaining why results from field studies often do not match theoretical predictions on maternal effects on population dynamics. |
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