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Kölliker M, Boos S, Wong JWY, Röllin L, Stucki D, Raveh S, Wu M, Meunier J. Parent-offspring conflict and the genetic trade-offs shaping parental investment. Nat Commun 2015; 6:6850. [PMID: 25880586 PMCID: PMC4410627 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7850] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2014] [Accepted: 03/04/2015] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
The genetic conflict between parents and their offspring is a cornerstone of kin selection theory and the gene-centred view of evolution, but whether it actually occurs in natural systems remains an open question. Conflict operates only if parenting is driven by genetic trade-offs between offspring performance and the parent's ability to raise additional offspring, and its expression critically depends on the shape of these trade-offs. Here we investigate the occurrence and nature of genetic conflict in an insect with maternal care, the earwig Forficula auricularia. Specifically, we test for a direct response to experimental selection on female future reproduction and correlated responses in current offspring survival, developmental rate and growth. The results demonstrate genetic trade-offs that differ in shape before and after hatching. Our study not only provides direct evidence for parent–offspring conflict but also highlights that conflict is not inevitable and critically depends on the genetic trade-offs shaping parental investment. Sexual reproduction introduces genetic conflict between family members, but direct empirical evidence is lacking. Here, the authors show, in an insect with maternal care, that genetic trade-offs that differ in shape across offspring stages affect the scope for parent–offspring conflict.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathias Kölliker
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Zoology and Evolution, University of Basel, Vesalgasse 1, 4051 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Stefan Boos
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Zoology and Evolution, University of Basel, Vesalgasse 1, 4051 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Janine W Y Wong
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Zoology and Evolution, University of Basel, Vesalgasse 1, 4051 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Lilian Röllin
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Zoology and Evolution, University of Basel, Vesalgasse 1, 4051 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Dimitri Stucki
- Center of Excellence in Biological Interactions, Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, Viikinkaari 1, 00014 Helsinki, Finland
| | - Shirley Raveh
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Zoology and Evolution, University of Basel, Vesalgasse 1, 4051 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Min Wu
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Zoology and Evolution, University of Basel, Vesalgasse 1, 4051 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Joël Meunier
- Department of Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Zoology, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, 55128 Mainz, Germany
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Stucki D, Kölliker M. Coevolutionary feedbacks between family interactions and life history. Evolution 2013; 67:3208-20. [PMID: 24152003 DOI: 10.1111/evo.12187] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2012] [Accepted: 05/30/2013] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Families with parental care show a parent-offspring conflict over the amount of parental investment. To date, the resolution of this conflict was modeled as being driven by either purely within-brood or between-brood competition. In reality the partitioning of parental resources within- versus between-broods is an evolving life history trait, which can be affected by parent-offspring interactions. This coevolutionary feedback between life history and family interactions may influence the evolutionary process and outcome of parent-offspring coadaptation. We used a genetic framework for a simulation model where we allowed parental parity to coevolve with traits that determine parental investment. The model included unlinked loci for clutch size, parental sensitivity, baseline provisioning, and offspring begging. The simulation showed that tight coadaptation of parent and offspring traits only occurred in iteroparous outcomes whereas semelparous outcomes were characterized by weak coadaptation. When genetic variation in clutch size was unrestricted in the ancestral population, semelparity and maximal begging with poor coadaptation evolved throughout. Conversely, when genetic variation was limited to iteroparous conditions, and/or when parental sensitivity was treated as an evolutionarily fixed sensory bias, coadapted outcomes were more likely. Our findings show the influence of a feedback between parity, coadaptation, and conflict on the evolution of parent-offspring interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dimitri Stucki
- Center of Excellence in Biological Interactions, Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, Viikinkaari 1, 00014, Helsinki, Finland.
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Bossan B, Hammerstein P, Koehncke A. We were all young once: an intragenomic perspective on parent-offspring conflict. Proc Biol Sci 2013; 280:20122637. [PMID: 23303542 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2012.2637] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Parent-offspring conflict (POC) describes the evolutionary conflict between offspring and their parents over parental resource allocation. Offspring are expected to demand more resources than their parents are willing to supply because these offspring are more related to their own than to their siblings' offspring. Kin selection acts to limit these divergent interests. Our model departs from previous models by describing POC as an intragenomic conflict between genes determining life-history traits during infancy or parenthood. We explain why a direct fitness approach that measures the total fitness effect during exactly one generation is required to correctly assess POC in interbrood rivalry. We find that incorrect assumptions in previous models led to an overestimation of the scope of POC. Moreover, we show why the degree of monogamy is more important for POC than previously thought. Overall, we demonstrate that a life-history-centred intragenomic approach is necessary to correctly interpret POCs. We further discuss how our work relates to the current debate about the usefulness of inclusive fitness theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Bossan
- Institute for Theoretical Biology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany.
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Skubic E, Taborsky M, McNamara JM, Houston AI. When to parasitize? A dynamic optimization model of reproductive strategies in a cooperative breeder. J Theor Biol 2004; 227:487-501. [PMID: 15038984 DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2003.11.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2003] [Revised: 11/05/2003] [Accepted: 11/14/2003] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
We consider a cooperatively breeding group and find the optimal pattern of reproductive parasitism by a subordinate helper as a function of its body size, and hence the share of reproduction obtained by the subordinate. We develop the model for the social system of the cooperatively breeding cichlid fish Neolamprologus pulcher but the general framework is also applicable to other cooperative systems. In addition to behaving cooperatively by sharing tasks, sexually mature male cichlid helpers may directly parasitize the reproduction of dominant breeders in the group. We investigate the relative influence of life history and behavioural variables including growth, parasitism capacity, future reproductive fitness benefits and costs, relatedness and expulsion risk on the optimal reproductive strategy of subordinates. In a detailed analysis of the parameter space we show that a male helper should base its decision to parasitize primarily on an increase in expulsion risk resulting from reproductive parasitism (punishment), intra-group relatedness and the parasitism capacity. If expulsion risk is high then helpers should not parasitize reproduction at medium body size but should parasitize either when small or large.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Skubic
- Konrad Lorenz Institute for Comparative Ethology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria.
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