Quantifying maternal investment in mammals using allometry
Abstract Maternal investment influences the survival and reproduction of both mothers and their progeny and plays a crucial role in understanding individuals’ life-history and population ecology. To reveal the complex mechanisms associated with reproduction and investment, it is necessary to examine...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2024-04-01
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| Series: | Communications Biology |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06165-x |
| _version_ | 1827276999477952512 |
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| author | Tim E.R.G. Huijsmans Alexandre Courtiol Ann Van Soom Katrien Smits François Rousset Jella Wauters Thomas B. Hildebrandt |
| author_facet | Tim E.R.G. Huijsmans Alexandre Courtiol Ann Van Soom Katrien Smits François Rousset Jella Wauters Thomas B. Hildebrandt |
| author_sort | Tim E.R.G. Huijsmans |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Maternal investment influences the survival and reproduction of both mothers and their progeny and plays a crucial role in understanding individuals’ life-history and population ecology. To reveal the complex mechanisms associated with reproduction and investment, it is necessary to examine variations in maternal investment across species. Comparisons across species call for a standardised method to quantify maternal investment, which remained to be developed. This paper addresses this limitation by introducing the maternal investment metric – MI – for mammalian species, established through the allometric scaling of the litter mass at weaning age by the adult mass and investment duration (i.e. gestation + lactation duration) of a species. Using a database encompassing hundreds of mammalian species, we show that the metric is not highly sensitive to the regression method used to fit the allometric relationship or to the proxy used for adult body mass. The comparison of the maternal investment metric between mammalian subclasses and orders reveals strong differences across taxa. For example, our metric confirms that Eutheria have a higher maternal investment than Metatheria. We discuss how further research could use the maternal investment metric as a valuable tool to understand variation in reproductive strategies. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T07:13:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ea53df6976a54ece94d67f952bef8969 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2399-3642 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T07:13:34Z |
| publishDate | 2024-04-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Communications Biology |
| spelling | doaj.art-ea53df6976a54ece94d67f952bef89692024-04-21T11:27:19ZengNature PortfolioCommunications Biology2399-36422024-04-017111210.1038/s42003-024-06165-xQuantifying maternal investment in mammals using allometryTim E.R.G. Huijsmans0Alexandre Courtiol1Ann Van Soom2Katrien Smits3François Rousset4Jella Wauters5Thomas B. Hildebrandt6Department of Internal Medicine, Reproduction and Population Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent UniversityDepartment of Evolutionary Genetics, Leibniz Institute for Zoo & Wildlife ResearchDepartment of Internal Medicine, Reproduction and Population Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent UniversityDepartment of Internal Medicine, Reproduction and Population Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent UniversityInstitute of Evolutionary Science of Montpellier, University of Montpellier, CNRS, IRDDepartment of Reproduction Biology, Leibniz Institute for Zoo & Wildlife ResearchDepartment of Reproduction Management, Leibniz Institute for Zoo & Wildlife ResearchAbstract Maternal investment influences the survival and reproduction of both mothers and their progeny and plays a crucial role in understanding individuals’ life-history and population ecology. To reveal the complex mechanisms associated with reproduction and investment, it is necessary to examine variations in maternal investment across species. Comparisons across species call for a standardised method to quantify maternal investment, which remained to be developed. This paper addresses this limitation by introducing the maternal investment metric – MI – for mammalian species, established through the allometric scaling of the litter mass at weaning age by the adult mass and investment duration (i.e. gestation + lactation duration) of a species. Using a database encompassing hundreds of mammalian species, we show that the metric is not highly sensitive to the regression method used to fit the allometric relationship or to the proxy used for adult body mass. The comparison of the maternal investment metric between mammalian subclasses and orders reveals strong differences across taxa. For example, our metric confirms that Eutheria have a higher maternal investment than Metatheria. We discuss how further research could use the maternal investment metric as a valuable tool to understand variation in reproductive strategies.https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06165-x |
| spellingShingle | Tim E.R.G. Huijsmans Alexandre Courtiol Ann Van Soom Katrien Smits François Rousset Jella Wauters Thomas B. Hildebrandt Quantifying maternal investment in mammals using allometry Communications Biology |
| title | Quantifying maternal investment in mammals using allometry |
| title_full | Quantifying maternal investment in mammals using allometry |
| title_fullStr | Quantifying maternal investment in mammals using allometry |
| title_full_unstemmed | Quantifying maternal investment in mammals using allometry |
| title_short | Quantifying maternal investment in mammals using allometry |
| title_sort | quantifying maternal investment in mammals using allometry |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06165-x |
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