Open AccessEvolutionary change in the construction of the nursery environment when parents are prevented from caring for their young directly
Author(s) -
Ana Duarte,
Darren Rebar,
Allysa C. Hallett,
Benjamin J. M. Jarrett,
Rebecca M. Kilner
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.2102450118
Subject(s) - paternal care , offspring , biology , carrion , zoology , larva , ecology , genetics , pregnancy
Significance Parents can care for offspring directly by giving them food or warmth, for example, or they can help them without direct contact via an extended phenotype by manipulating the nursery environment in which offspring develop. Using an experimental evolution approach, we prevented parents from directly supplying care to their offspring and observed how the extended care phenotype and offspring traits evolved in response. We found that depriving offspring of direct care caused rapid adaptive change in the construction of the nursery environment, which rescued offspring from otherwise poor developmental conditions. Overall, offspring tended to perform better when transplanted to a nursery environment constructed by parents of their own lineage, suggesting that offspring adapt to the evolved extended parental phenotype.