Abstract
BackgroundMaternal 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.Methodology/Principal FindingsThe 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.Conclusions/SignificanceThese 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.
Highlights
Maternal effects are widespread in natural and experimental populations [1,2] and can have pervasive effects on population dynamics [3]
We show that maternal environment changes progeny reproduction and development in C. elegans (Figures 1, 2, 3, 4 and Table 1)
Primarily identified by their ability to rescue embryonic lethal phenotypes, are known in C. elegans [28], and some maternal effect mutations alter progeny reproduction and developmental timing (e.g. [29]). This represents the first demonstration of maternal effects on reproduction and development in non-mutant C. elegans, a finding with important implications for understanding and estimating fitness in C. elegans
Summary
Maternal effects are widespread in natural and experimental populations [1,2] and can have pervasive effects on population dynamics [3]. Many maternal effects are a response to unfavorable conditions and are often mediated via trade-offs between progeny number and aspects of progeny quality [4]. These trade-offs can represent attempts to appropriately match progeny phenotype to the expected progeny environment [1,4,5]. 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. We have investigated the effect of maternal food availability on progeny life history in the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans
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