All eggs are not equal: the maternal environment affects progeny reproduction and developmental fate in Caenorhabditis elegans.
Maternal effects on progeny traits are common and these can profoundly alter progeny life history. Maternal effects can be adaptive, representing attempts to appropriately match offspring phenotype to the expected environment and are often mediated via trade-offs between progeny number and quality....
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2011-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3186773?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1819078972306096128 |
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| author | Simon C Harvey Helen E Orbidans |
| author_facet | Simon C Harvey Helen E Orbidans |
| author_sort | Simon C Harvey |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Maternal effects on progeny traits are common and these can profoundly alter progeny life history. Maternal effects can be adaptive, representing attempts to appropriately match offspring phenotype to the expected environment and are often mediated via trade-offs between progeny number and quality. Here we have investigated the effect of maternal food availability on progeny life history in the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.The maternal environment affects both reproductive traits and progeny development. Comparisons of the progeny of worms from high and low maternal food environments indicates that low maternal food availability reduces progeny reproduction in good environments, increases progeny reproduction in poor environments and decreases the likelihood that progeny will develop as dauer larvae. These analyses also indicate that the effects on progeny are not a simple consequence of changes in maternal body size, but are associated with an increase in the size of eggs produced by worms at low maternal food availabilities.These results indicate that the maternal environment affects both progeny reproduction and development in C. elegans and therefore that all progeny are not equal. The observed effects are consistent with changes to egg provisioning, which are beneficial in harsh environments, and of changes to progeny development, which are beneficial in harsh environments and detrimental in benign environments. These changes in progeny life history suggest that mothers in poor quality environments may be producing larger eggs that are better suited to poor conditions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T19:21:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1e8ed26f090449a7aefaa86ce779285b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T19:21:35Z |
| publishDate | 2011-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-1e8ed26f090449a7aefaa86ce779285b2022-12-21T18:52:55ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032011-01-01610e2584010.1371/journal.pone.0025840All eggs are not equal: the maternal environment affects progeny reproduction and developmental fate in Caenorhabditis elegans.Simon C HarveyHelen E OrbidansMaternal effects on progeny traits are common and these can profoundly alter progeny life history. Maternal effects can be adaptive, representing attempts to appropriately match offspring phenotype to the expected environment and are often mediated via trade-offs between progeny number and quality. Here we have investigated the effect of maternal food availability on progeny life history in the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.The maternal environment affects both reproductive traits and progeny development. Comparisons of the progeny of worms from high and low maternal food environments indicates that low maternal food availability reduces progeny reproduction in good environments, increases progeny reproduction in poor environments and decreases the likelihood that progeny will develop as dauer larvae. These analyses also indicate that the effects on progeny are not a simple consequence of changes in maternal body size, but are associated with an increase in the size of eggs produced by worms at low maternal food availabilities.These results indicate that the maternal environment affects both progeny reproduction and development in C. elegans and therefore that all progeny are not equal. The observed effects are consistent with changes to egg provisioning, which are beneficial in harsh environments, and of changes to progeny development, which are beneficial in harsh environments and detrimental in benign environments. These changes in progeny life history suggest that mothers in poor quality environments may be producing larger eggs that are better suited to poor conditions.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3186773?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Simon C Harvey Helen E Orbidans All eggs are not equal: the maternal environment affects progeny reproduction and developmental fate in Caenorhabditis elegans. PLoS ONE |
| title | All eggs are not equal: the maternal environment affects progeny reproduction and developmental fate in Caenorhabditis elegans. |
| title_full | All eggs are not equal: the maternal environment affects progeny reproduction and developmental fate in Caenorhabditis elegans. |
| title_fullStr | All eggs are not equal: the maternal environment affects progeny reproduction and developmental fate in Caenorhabditis elegans. |
| title_full_unstemmed | All eggs are not equal: the maternal environment affects progeny reproduction and developmental fate in Caenorhabditis elegans. |
| title_short | All eggs are not equal: the maternal environment affects progeny reproduction and developmental fate in Caenorhabditis elegans. |
| title_sort | all eggs are not equal the maternal environment affects progeny reproduction and developmental fate in caenorhabditis elegans |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3186773?pdf=render |
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