Evolutionary change in the construction of the nursery environment when parents are prevented from caring for their young directly
(2021) In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 118(48).- Abstract
Parental care can be partitioned into traits that involve direct engagement with offspring and traits that are expressed as an extended phenotype and influence the developmental environment, such as constructing a nursery. Here, we use experimental evolution to test whether parents can evolve modifications in nursery construction when they are experimentally prevented from supplying care directly to offspring. We exposed replicate experimental populations of burying beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides) to different regimes of posthatching care by allowing larvae to develop in the presence (Full Care) or absence of parents (No Care). After only 13 generations of experimental evolution, we found an adaptive evolutionary increase in the pace... (More)
Parental care can be partitioned into traits that involve direct engagement with offspring and traits that are expressed as an extended phenotype and influence the developmental environment, such as constructing a nursery. Here, we use experimental evolution to test whether parents can evolve modifications in nursery construction when they are experimentally prevented from supplying care directly to offspring. We exposed replicate experimental populations of burying beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides) to different regimes of posthatching care by allowing larvae to develop in the presence (Full Care) or absence of parents (No Care). After only 13 generations of experimental evolution, we found an adaptive evolutionary increase in the pace at which parents in the No Care populations converted a dead body into a carrion nest for larvae. Cross-fostering experiments further revealed that No Care larvae performed better on a carrion nest prepared by No Care parents than did Full Care larvae. We conclude that parents construct the nursery environment in relation to their effectiveness at supplying care directly, after offspring are born. When direct care is prevented entirely, they evolve to make compensatory adjustments to the nursery in which their young will develop. The rapid evolutionary change observed in our experiments suggests there is considerable standing genetic variation for parental care traits in natural burying beetle populations-for reasons that remain unclear.
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- author
- Duarte, Ana LU ; Rebar, Darren ; Hallett, Allysa C. ; Jarrett, Benjamin J.M. LU and Kilner, Rebecca M.
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021-11
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Burying beetle, Experimental evolution, Extended phenotype, Local adaptation, Parental care
- in
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- volume
- 118
- issue
- 48
- article number
- e2102450118
- publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85120332658
- pmid:34819363
- ISSN
- 0027-8424
- DOI
- 10.1073/pnas.2102450118
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 66124ff1-f2a2-4968-bd59-1b72c16842e5
- date added to LUP
- 2021-12-15 12:00:57
- date last changed
- 2024-04-06 15:20:11
@article{66124ff1-f2a2-4968-bd59-1b72c16842e5,
abstract = {{<p>Parental care can be partitioned into traits that involve direct engagement with offspring and traits that are expressed as an extended phenotype and influence the developmental environment, such as constructing a nursery. Here, we use experimental evolution to test whether parents can evolve modifications in nursery construction when they are experimentally prevented from supplying care directly to offspring. We exposed replicate experimental populations of burying beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides) to different regimes of posthatching care by allowing larvae to develop in the presence (Full Care) or absence of parents (No Care). After only 13 generations of experimental evolution, we found an adaptive evolutionary increase in the pace at which parents in the No Care populations converted a dead body into a carrion nest for larvae. Cross-fostering experiments further revealed that No Care larvae performed better on a carrion nest prepared by No Care parents than did Full Care larvae. We conclude that parents construct the nursery environment in relation to their effectiveness at supplying care directly, after offspring are born. When direct care is prevented entirely, they evolve to make compensatory adjustments to the nursery in which their young will develop. The rapid evolutionary change observed in our experiments suggests there is considerable standing genetic variation for parental care traits in natural burying beetle populations-for reasons that remain unclear.</p>}},
author = {{Duarte, Ana and Rebar, Darren and Hallett, Allysa C. and Jarrett, Benjamin J.M. and Kilner, Rebecca M.}},
issn = {{0027-8424}},
keywords = {{Burying beetle; Experimental evolution; Extended phenotype; Local adaptation; Parental care}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{48}},
publisher = {{National Academy of Sciences}},
series = {{Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America}},
title = {{Evolutionary change in the construction of the nursery environment when parents are prevented from caring for their young directly}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2102450118}},
doi = {{10.1073/pnas.2102450118}},
volume = {{118}},
year = {{2021}},
}