Abstract
Understanding how genetic, nongenetic, and environmental cues are integrated during development may be critical in understanding if, and how, organisms will respond to rapid environmental change. Normally, only post-embryonic studies are possible. But in this study, we developed a real-time, high-throughput confocal microscope assay that allowed us to link Daphnia embryogenesis to offspring life history variation at the individual level. Our assay identified eight clear developmental phenotypes linked by seven developmental stages, the duration of which were correlated with the expression of specific offspring life history traits. Daphnia embryogenesis varied not only between clones reared in the same environment, but also within a single clone when mothers were of different ages or reared in different food environments. Our results support the hypothesis that Daphnia embryogenesis is plastic and can be altered by changes in maternal state or maternal environment. As well as furthering our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning parental effects, our assay may also have an industrial application if it can be used as a rapid ecotoxicological prescreen for testing the effect that pollutant doses have on offspring life histories traditionally assayed with a 21-day Daphnia reproduction test.
Highlights
We developed a high‐throughput confocal microscope assay that allowed us to link Daphnia embryogenesis to offspring life history variation at the individual level
We found that patterns of embryogenesis varied between clones reared in the same environment, and within a single clone when mothers were of different ages, or experienced different food environments
The duration of particular developmental stages was correlated with the expression of specific offspring life history traits, raising the possibility that our Daphnia embryogenesis assay might be useful for predicting the later life consequences of exposure to adverse environments
Summary
Et al, 2011) and includes mechanisms such as epigenetic inheritance and genomic imprinting, the transmission of. Other inheritance me- Bonduriansky & Day, 2009, 2018; Danchin et al, 2011; chanisms operate alongside Mendelian genetic inheritance Jablonka & Lamb, 2005 for reviews) Such transmission that may be environmentally sensitive. The mechanisms linking parental environment and/or state to offspring phenotypic variation remain unknown One reason for this is that genetic, nongenetic, and environmental cues are integrated during development, yet a majority of Daphnia studies start after offspring are born as neonates. A mechanistic understanding of the clone‐specific integration of developmental cues (Harney et al, 2017) requires the ability to link changes in parental environments or states to changes in egg development patterns and the effect that this has on offspring phenotypic variation. We tested the hypothesis that maternal food and maternal age effects generate egg developmental plasticity which can explain some of the life history trait variations we see in the offspring
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