Revisiting telegony: offspring inherit an acquired characteristic of their mother's previous mate
Abstract
Newly discovered non‐genetic mechanisms break the link between genes and inheritance, thereby also raising the possibility that previous mating partners could influence traits in offspring sired by subsequent males that mate with the same female (‘telegony’). In the fly Telostylinus angusticollis, males transmit their environmentally acquired condition via paternal effects on offspring body size. We manipulated male condition, and mated females to two males in high or low condition in a fully crossed design. Although the second male sired a large majority of offspring, offspring body size was influenced by the condition of the first male. This effect was not observed when females were exposed to the first male without mating, implicating semen‐mediated effects rather than female differential allocation based on pre‐mating assessment of male quality. Our results reveal a novel type of transgenerational effect with potential implications for the evolution of reproductive strategies.
Citing Literature
Number of times cited: 24
- Russell Bonduriansky, Angela J. Crean and Matthew Davey, What are parental condition‐transfer effects and how can they be detected?, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 9, 3, (450-456), (2017).
- Sonia Pascoal, Benjamin J. M. Jarrett, Emma Evans and Rebecca M. Kilner, Superior stimulation of female fecundity by subordinate males provides a mechanism for telegony, Evolution Letters, 2, 2, (114-125), (2018).
- E. Jeannerat, E. Marti, C. Berney, F. Janett, H. Bollwein, H. Sieme, D. Burger and C. Wedekind, Stallion semen quality depends on major histocompatibility complex matching to teaser mare, Molecular Ecology, 27, 4, (1025-1035), (2018).
- Mwenza Blell, Partible Paternity, The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, (1-4), (2018).
- Kylie E. Zirbel and Barry W. Alto, Maternal and paternal nutrition in a mosquito influences offspring life histories but not infection with an arbovirus, Ecosphere, 9, 10, (2018).
- Shinichi Nakagawa, Fonti Kar, Rose E. O’Dea, Joel L. Pick and Malgorzata Lagisz, Divide and conquer? Size adjustment with allometry and intermediate outcomes, BMC Biology, 15, 1, (2017).
- Maxim V. Zagoskin, Richard E. Davis and Dmitry V. Mukha, Double Stranded RNA in Human Seminal Plasma, Frontiers in Genetics, 8, (2017).
- S. Purnima Sailasree, Surabhi Srivastava and Rakesh K. Mishra, The placental gateway of maternal transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, Journal of Genetics, 10.1007/s12041-017-0788-5, 96, 3, (465-482), (2017).
- Russell Bonduriansky, Aidan Runagall‐McNaull, Angela J. Crean and Kwang Pum Lee, The nutritional geometry of parental effects: maternal and paternal macronutrient consumption and offspring phenotype in a neriid fly, Functional Ecology, 30, 10, (1675-1686), (2016).
- Annie S. Guillaume, Keyne Monro, Dustin J. Marshall and Michael Pfrender, Transgenerational plasticity and environmental stress: do paternal effects act as a conduit or a buffer?, Functional Ecology, 30, 7, (1175-1184), (2015).
- Yongsheng Liu and Xiuju Li, Darwin and Mendel today: a comment on “Limits of imagination: the 150th Anniversary of Mendel’s Laws, and why Mendel failed to see the importance of his discovery for Darwin’s theory of evolution”, Genome, 59, 1, (75), (2016).
- Angela J. Crean, Margo I. Adler and Russell Bonduriansky, Seminal Fluid and Mate Choice: New Predictions, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 31, 4, (253), (2016).
- Johannes Bohacek and Isabelle M. Mansuy, Epigenetic Risk Factors for Diseases: A Transgenerational Perspective, Epigenetics and Neuroendocrinology, 10.1007/978-3-319-29901-3_4, (79-119), (2016).
- Juliano Morimoto and Stuart Wigby, Differential effects of male nutrient balance on pre- and post-copulatory traits, and consequences for female reproduction in Drosophila melanogaster, Scientific Reports, 6, 1, (2016).
- Joanne E. Littlefair, Robert J. Knell and Robert B. Srygley, Within- and Trans-Generational Effects of Variation in Dietary Macronutrient Content on Life-History Traits in the Moth Plodia interpunctella, PLOS ONE, 11, 12, (e0168869), (2016).
- Peter Schausberger, J. David Patiño-Ruiz, Masahiro Osakabe, Yasumasa Murata, Naoya Sugimoto, Ryuji Uesugi, Andreas Walzer and Nikos T Papadopoulos, Ultimate Drivers and Proximate Correlates of Polyandry in Predatory Mites, PLOS ONE, 11, 4, (e0154355), (2016).
- Qi Chen, Wei Yan and Enkui Duan, Epigenetic inheritance of acquired traits through sperm RNAs and sperm RNA modifications, Nature Reviews Genetics, 17, 12, (733), (2016).
- P. DASGUPTA, S. HALDER and B. NANDY, Paternal social experience affects male reproductive behaviour in Drosophila melanogaster, Journal of Genetics, 95, 3, (725), (2016).
- Outi Ala‐Honkola, Michael G. Ritchie and Paris Veltsos, Postmating–prezygotic isolation between two allopatric populations of Drosophila montana: fertilisation success differs under sperm competition, Ecology and Evolution, 6, 6, (1679-1691), (2016).
- C. Smart, G. Strathdee, S. Watson, C. Murgatroyd and R. H. McAllister-Williams, Early life trauma, depression and the glucocorticoid receptor gene – an epigenetic perspective, Psychological Medicine, 45, 16, (3393), (2015).
- Maurizio Meloni, Heredity 2.0: the epigenetics effect, New Genetics and Society, 10.1080/14636778.2015.1036156, 34, 2, (117-124), (2015).
- C. Fricke, M. I. Adler, R. C. Brooks and R. Bonduriansky, The complexity of male reproductive success: effects of nutrition, morphology, and experience, Behavioral Ecology, 26, 2, (617), (2015).
- R. K. Vijendravarma and T. J. Kawecki, Idiosyncratic evolution of maternal effects in response to juvenile malnutrition in Drosophila, Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 28, 4, (876-884), (2015).
- Biz R. Turnell and Kerry L. Shaw, Polyandry and postcopulatory sexual selection in a wild population, Molecular Ecology, 24, 24, (6278-6288), (2015).
