Intergenerational effects of early adversity on survival in wild baboons
Early life adversity can affect an individual’s health, survival, and fertility for many years after the adverse experience. Whether early life adversity also imposes intergenerational effects on the exposed individual’s offspring is not well understood. We fill this gap by leveraging prospective, l...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2019-09-01
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| Series: | eLife |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/47433 |
| _version_ | 1828384240348168192 |
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| author | Matthew N Zipple Elizabeth A Archie Jenny Tung Jeanne Altmann Susan C Alberts |
| author_facet | Matthew N Zipple Elizabeth A Archie Jenny Tung Jeanne Altmann Susan C Alberts |
| author_sort | Matthew N Zipple |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Early life adversity can affect an individual’s health, survival, and fertility for many years after the adverse experience. Whether early life adversity also imposes intergenerational effects on the exposed individual’s offspring is not well understood. We fill this gap by leveraging prospective, longitudinal data on a wild, long-lived primate. We find that juveniles whose mothers experienced early life adversity exhibit high mortality before age 4, independent of the juvenile’s own experience of early adversity. These juveniles often preceded their mothers in death by 1 to 2 years, indicating that high adversity females decline in their ability to raise offspring near the end of life. While we cannot exclude direct effects of a parent’s environment on offspring quality (e.g., inherited epigenetic changes), our results are completely consistent with a classic parental effect, in which the environment experienced by a parent affects its future phenotype and therefore its offspring’s phenotype. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T05:00:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4df278e7d0fb401c9b435dca1f83b622 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T05:00:35Z |
| publishDate | 2019-09-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
| record_format | Article |
| series | eLife |
| spelling | doaj.art-4df278e7d0fb401c9b435dca1f83b6222022-12-22T02:01:24ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2019-09-01810.7554/eLife.47433Intergenerational effects of early adversity on survival in wild baboonsMatthew N Zipple0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3451-2103Elizabeth A Archie1Jenny Tung2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0416-2958Jeanne Altmann3Susan C Alberts4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1313-488XDepartment of Biology, Duke University, Durham, United StatesDepartment of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, United States; Institute of Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, KenyaDepartment of Biology, Duke University, Durham, United States; Institute of Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya; Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, United States; Duke Population Research Institute, Duke University, Durham, United StatesInstitute of Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, United StatesDepartment of Biology, Duke University, Durham, United States; Institute of Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya; Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, United States; Duke Population Research Institute, Duke University, Durham, United StatesEarly life adversity can affect an individual’s health, survival, and fertility for many years after the adverse experience. Whether early life adversity also imposes intergenerational effects on the exposed individual’s offspring is not well understood. We fill this gap by leveraging prospective, longitudinal data on a wild, long-lived primate. We find that juveniles whose mothers experienced early life adversity exhibit high mortality before age 4, independent of the juvenile’s own experience of early adversity. These juveniles often preceded their mothers in death by 1 to 2 years, indicating that high adversity females decline in their ability to raise offspring near the end of life. While we cannot exclude direct effects of a parent’s environment on offspring quality (e.g., inherited epigenetic changes), our results are completely consistent with a classic parental effect, in which the environment experienced by a parent affects its future phenotype and therefore its offspring’s phenotype.https://elifesciences.org/articles/47433early adversityintergenerational effectsdevelopmental constraintsmaternal effects |
| spellingShingle | Matthew N Zipple Elizabeth A Archie Jenny Tung Jeanne Altmann Susan C Alberts Intergenerational effects of early adversity on survival in wild baboons eLife early adversity intergenerational effects developmental constraints maternal effects |
| title | Intergenerational effects of early adversity on survival in wild baboons |
| title_full | Intergenerational effects of early adversity on survival in wild baboons |
| title_fullStr | Intergenerational effects of early adversity on survival in wild baboons |
| title_full_unstemmed | Intergenerational effects of early adversity on survival in wild baboons |
| title_short | Intergenerational effects of early adversity on survival in wild baboons |
| title_sort | intergenerational effects of early adversity on survival in wild baboons |
| topic | early adversity intergenerational effects developmental constraints maternal effects |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/47433 |
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