Abstract
Trans‐generational plasticity (TGP) is the adjustment of phenotypes to changing habitat conditions that persist longer than the individual lifetime. Fitness benefits (adaptive TGP) are expected upon matching parent–offspring environments. In a global change scenario, several performance‐related environmental factors are changing simultaneously. This lowers the predictability of offspring environmental conditions, potentially hampering the benefits of TGP. For the first time, we here explore how the combination of an abiotic and a biotic environmental factor in the parental generation plays out as trans‐generational effect in the offspring. We fully reciprocally exposed the parental generation of the pipefish Syngnathus typhle to an immune challenge and elevated temperatures simulating a naturally occurring heatwave. Upon mating and male pregnancy, offspring were kept in ambient or elevated temperature regimes combined with a heat‐killed bacterial epitope treatment. Differential gene expression (immune genes and DNA‐ and histone‐modification genes) suggests that the combined change of an abiotic and a biotic factor in the parental generation had interactive effects on offspring performance, the temperature effect dominated over the immune challenge impact. The benefits of certain parental environmental conditions on offspring performance did not sum up when abiotic and biotic factors were changed simultaneously supporting that available resources that can be allocated to phenotypic trans‐generational effects are limited. Temperature is the master regulator of trans‐generational phenotypic plasticity, which potentially implies a conflict in the allocation of resources towards several environmental factors. This asks for a reassessment of TGP as a short‐term option to buffer environmental variation in the light of climate change.
Highlights
How species and ecosystems respond to rapid environmental alterations and spatial heterogeneity is crucial for the maintenance of biodiversity, in particular in the light of strong selection imposed by global change (Carroll et al, 2014; Chevin, Lande, & Mace, 2010; Hoffmann & Sgro, 2011)
Rather we found that a change in two parental environmental conditions (Vibrio challenge and temperature alteration) and experience of higher temperatures during offspring development resulted in a reduced expression of several genes, LectpII, Ik.cyto, C1, BROMO, which underlines the presence of Trans-generational plasticity (TGP)
Trans-generational plasticity has the potential to compensate the negative impact of environmental change in sensitive early life stages (Bonduriansky & Day, 2009; Donelson et al, 2012; Kristensen, 1995; Roth, Klein, et al, 2012; Salinas & Munch, 2012; Uller, 2008)
Summary
How species and ecosystems respond to rapid environmental alterations and spatial heterogeneity is crucial for the maintenance of biodiversity, in particular in the light of strong selection imposed by global change (Carroll et al, 2014; Chevin, Lande, & Mace, 2010; Hoffmann & Sgro, 2011). If the parental environment is a good predictor of the offspring environment, TGP can be adaptive and boost the survival of the exceptionally sensitive early developmental stages, with long-lasting benefits until adulthood (Kirkpatrick & Lande, 1989; Kristensen, 1995; Mousseau & Fox, 1998; Rossiter 1996) This enables a rapid acclimatization to fast changing, fluctuating or spatially heterogeneous environmental conditions. The experience of two environmental factors in the parental generation can have synergistic beneficial impact on offspring performance, in particular in case of a matching parental and offspring environment (Burgess & Marshall, 2014; Mousseau & Fox, 1998; Salinas & Munch, 2012; Uller, 2008). This supports the hypothesized interactive effects of parental immune challenge and exposure to elevated temperature on offspring gene expression
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