scholarly journals Antimicrobial strategies in burying beetles breeding on carrion

2008 ◽  
Vol 105 (46) ◽  
pp. 17890-17895 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. E. Rozen ◽  
D. J. P. Engelmoer ◽  
P. T. Smiseth
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Detrimental Effect ◽  
Larval Growth ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Microbial Competition ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Ephemeral Resources

Rich and ephemeral resources, such as carrion, are a source of intense interspecific competition among animal scavengers and microbial decomposers. Janzen [Janzen DH (1977) Am Nat 111:691–713] hypothesized that microbes should be selected to defend such resources by rendering them unpalatable or toxic to animals, and that animals should evolve counterstrategies of avoidance or detoxification. Despite the ubiquity of animal-microbe competition, there are few tests of Janzen's hypothesis, in particular with respect to antimicrobial strategies in animals. Here, we use the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, a species that obligately breeds on carcasses of small vertebrates, to investigate the role of parental care and avoidance as antimicrobial strategies. We manipulated competition between beetle larvae and microbes by providing beetles with either fresh carcasses or old ones that had reached advanced putrefaction. We found evidence for a strong detrimental effect of microbial competition on beetle reproductive success and larval growth. We also found that parental care can largely compensate for these negative effects, and that when given a choice between old and fresh carcasses, parents tended to choose to rear their broods on the latter. We conclude that parental care and carcass avoidance can function as antimicrobial strategies in this species. Our findings extend the range of behavioral counterstrategies used by animals during competition with microbes, and generalize the work of Janzen to include competition between microbes and insects that rely on carrion as an obligate resource for breeding and not just as an opportunistic meal.

scholarly journals Evolutionary change in the construction of the nursery environment when parents are prevented from caring for their young directly

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (48) ◽  
pp. e2102450118
Author(s):  
Ana Duarte ◽  
Darren Rebar ◽  
Allysa C. Hallett ◽  
Benjamin J. M. Jarrett ◽  
Rebecca M. Kilner
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Experimental Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Change ◽  
Direct Care ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Extended Phenotype ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Cross Fostering

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.

scholarly journals Adaptive evolution of synchronous egg-hatching in compensation for the loss of parental care

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1885) ◽  
pp. 20181452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin J. M. Jarrett ◽  
Darren Rebar ◽  
Hannah B. Haynes ◽  
Miranda R. Leaf ◽  
Chay Halliwell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
The Body ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Egg Hatching ◽  
Asynchronous Hatching ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Experimental Populations ◽  
And Control ◽  
Better Than

Interactions among siblings are finely balanced between rivalry and cooperation, but the factors that tip the balance towards cooperation are incompletely understood. Previous observations of insect species suggest that (i) sibling cooperation is more likely when siblings hatch at the same time, and (ii) this is more common when parents provide little to no care. In this paper, we tested these ideas experimentally with the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides . Burying beetles convert the body of a small dead vertebrate into an edible nest for their larvae, and provision and guard their young after hatching. In our first experiment, we simulated synchronous or asynchronous hatching by adding larvae at different intervals to the carrion-breeding resource. We found that ‘synchronously’ hatched broods survived better than ‘asynchronously’ hatched broods, probably because ‘synchronous hatching’ generated larger teams of larvae, that together worked more effectively to penetrate the carrion nest and feed upon it. In our second experiment, we measured the synchronicity of hatching in experimental populations that had evolved for 22 generations without any post-hatching care, and control populations that had evolved in parallel with post-hatching care. We found that larvae were more likely to hatch earlier, and at the same time as their broodmates, in the experimental populations that evolved without post-hatching care. We suggest that synchronous hatching enables offspring to help each other when parents are not present to provide care. However, we also suggest that greater levels of cooperation among siblings cannot compensate fully for the loss of parental care.

scholarly journals A gene for social immunity in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides?

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
William JP Palmer ◽  
Ana Duarte ◽  
Matthew Schrader ◽  
Jonathan P Day ◽  
Rebecca Kilner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Microbial Growth ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Social Immunity ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Living Species ◽  
Six Genes

Some group-living species exhibit social immunity, where the immune system of one individual can protect others in the group from infection. In burying beetles this is part of parental care. Larvae feed on vertebrate carcasses which their parents smear with exudates that inhibit microbial growth. We have sequenced the transcriptome of the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides and identified six genes that encode lysozymes – a type of antimicrobial enzyme that has previously been implicated in social immunity in burying beetles. When females start breeding and producing antimicrobial anal exudates, we found that the expression of one of these genes was increased by ~1000 times to become one of the most abundant transcripts in the transcriptome. We conclude that we have likely identified a gene for social immunity, and that it was recruited during evolution from a previous function in personal immunity.

scholarly journals Fitness effects and transmission of phoretic nematodes of the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yin Wang ◽  
Daniel E. Rozen
Keyword(s):  
Brood Size ◽  
Larval Survival ◽  
List Type ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Fitness Effects ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Efficient Mechanisms

AbstractNicrophorus vespilloides is a cosmopolitan social beetle that rears its offspring on decomposing carrion. Wild beetles are frequently associated with two types of macrobial symbionts, mites and nematodes.Although these organisms are believed to be phoretic commensals that harmlessly use beetles as a means of transfer between carcasses, the role of these symbionts on N. vespilloides fitness is poorly understood. Here we show that nematodes have significant negative effects on beetle fitness across a range of worm densities and also quantify the density-dependent transmission of worms between mating individuals and from parents to offspring.Using field-caught beetles, we provide the first report of a new nematode symbiont in N. vespilloides, most closely related to Rhabditoides regina, and show that worm densities are highly variable across individuals isolated from nature but do not differ between males and females. Next, by inoculating mating females with increasing densities of nematodes, we show that worm infections significantly reduce brood size, larval survival and larval mass, and also eliminate the trade-off between brood size and larval mass. Finally, we show that nematodes are efficiently transmitted between mating individuals and from mothers to larvae, directly and indirectly via the carcass, and that worms persist through pupation.These results show that the phoretic nematode R. regina can be highly parasitic to burying beetles but can nevertheless persist because of efficient mechanisms of intersexual and intergenerational transmission.Phoretic species are exceptionally common and may cause significant harm to their hosts, even though they rely on these larger species for transmission to new resources. However, this harm may be inevitable and unavoidable if transmission of phoretic symbionts requires nematode proliferation. It will be important to determine the generality of our result for other phoretic associates of animals.

scholarly journals The role of neuropeptide F in a transition to parental care

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 20160158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher B. Cunningham ◽  
Kathryn VanDenHeuvel ◽  
Daven B. Khana ◽  
Elizabeth C. McKinney ◽  
Allen J. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Feeding Behaviour ◽  
Genetic Influences ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Genetic Mechanisms ◽  
Neuropeptide F ◽  
Active Care

The genetics of complex social behaviour can be dissected by examining the genetic influences of component pathways, which can be predicted based on expected evolutionary precursors. Here, we examine how gene expression in a pathway that influences the motivation to eat is altered during parental care that involves direct feeding of larvae. We examine the expression of neuropeptide F , and its receptor, in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides , which feeds pre-digested carrion to its begging larvae. We found that the npf receptor was greatly reduced during active care. Our research provides evidence that feeding behaviour was a likely target during the evolution of parental care in N. vespilloides . Moreover, dissecting complex behaviours into ethologically distinct sub-behaviours is a productive way to begin to target the genetic mechanisms involved in the evolution of complex behaviours.

scholarly journals The transcriptional basis of quantitative behavioral variation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle M. Benowitz ◽  
Elizabeth C. McKinney ◽  
Christopher B. Cunningham ◽  
Allen J. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Behavioral State ◽  
Rna Seq ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Behavioral Variation ◽  
Provisioning Behavior ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Nicrophorus Orbicollis

AbstractWhat causes individuals to produce quantitatively different phenotypes? While substantial research has focused on the allelic changes that affect phenotype, we know less about how gene expression accompanies variable phenotypes. Here, we investigate the transcriptional basis of variation in parental provisioning using two species of burying beetle, Nicrophorus orbicollis and Nicrophorus vespilloides. Specifically, we used RNA-seq to compare the transcriptomes of parents that provided high amounts of provisioning behavior versus low amounts in males and females of each species. We found that there were no overarching transcriptional patterns that distinguish high from low caring parents, and no informative transcripts that displayed particularly large expression differences in females or males. However, we did find more subtle gene expression changes between high and low provisioning parents that are consistent across sexes as well as between the two species. Furthermore, we show that transcripts previously implicated in transitioning into parental care in N. vespilloides had high variance in the levels of transcription and were unusually likely to display differential expression between high and low provisioning parents. Thus, quantitative behavioral variation appears to reflect many transcriptional differences of small effect. We show that nuanced regulation of the same gene products that are required for the transition of one behavioral state to another are also those influencing variation within a behavioral state.Author SummaryBurying beetles in the genus Nicrophorus breed on vertebrate carcasses and provide advanced parental care to their offspring by regurgitating partially digested flesh. However, all adult beetles do not uniformly express this trait. Some provide a large amount of parenting to their offspring, and some only a little. Here, we investigate the genetic causes of why some Nicrophorus beetles feed their offspring more than others. We demonstrate that this difference is likely caused by many small changes in gene expression, rather than a few genes that have major effects. We also find that some of the same genes that help to turn on parental care behavior in burying beetles also seem to play a role in determining how much care a beetle gives. These results provide new angles on longstanding questions about the complexity of the mechanisms that underlie quantitative variation in populations.

scholarly journals Maternal effects alter the severity of inbreeding depression in the offspring

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1838) ◽  
pp. 20161023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Pilakouta ◽  
Per T. Smiseth
Keyword(s):  
Maternal Effects ◽  
Inbreeding Depression ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Larval Survival ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Selection For

A maternal effect is a causal influence of the maternal phenotype on the offspring phenotype over and above any direct effects of genes. There is abundant evidence that maternal effects can have a major impact on offspring fitness. Yet, no previous study has investigated the potential role of maternal effects in influencing the severity of inbreeding depression in the offspring. Inbreeding depression is a reduction in the fitness of inbred offspring relative to outbred offspring. Here, we tested whether maternal effects due to body size alter the magnitude of inbreeding depression in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides . We found that inbreeding depression in larval survival was more severe for offspring of large females than offspring of small females. This might be due to differences in how small and large females invest in an inbred brood because of their different prospects for future breeding opportunities. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence for a causal effect of the maternal phenotype on the severity of inbreeding depression in the offspring. In natural populations that are subject to inbreeding, maternal effects may drive variation in inbreeding depression and therefore contribute to variation in the strength and direction of selection for inbreeding avoidance.

scholarly journals The Importance Of Pre-Hatching Paternal Care On Offspring Fitness In Burying Beetle, Nicrophorus Vespilloides Herbst.

1970 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-54
Author(s):  
Sharmin Musa
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Group ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Male Parent ◽  
Direct Care ◽  
Removal Experiment ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Offspring Fitness ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Positive Effect

A male-removal experiment was performed to determine if the value of male parental care depended on the timing of the help. In the experiment male parent was removed before the carcass was prepared for breeding, after partial carcass preparation, after complete carcass preparation, before direct care for the larvae and males were allowed to disperse naturally after caring for the larvae. It was found that where the male provided complete pre-hatching care or both preand post-hatching care offspring were larger and in better condition. Mass of offspring at eclosion was affected by male removal (F3,1266 = 5.087, p = 0.002) though size of offspring was not affected by the treatment group. Complete prehatching care had a positive effect on development compared to limited care (F3, 1267 = 8.501, p < 0.000) but this effect disappeared if males remained after the larvae hatched. Larval survivorship did not vary among treatments (F3,122 = 0.531, p = 0.662).  

scholarly journals Development and application of 14 microsatellite markers in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides reveals population genetic differentiation at local spatial scales

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Pascoal ◽  
Rebecca M. Kilner
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Differentiation ◽  
Microsatellite Markers ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Genetic Structuring ◽  
Population Genetic Differentiation ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Limited Dispersal

Burying beetles (genus Nicrophorus) are relatively rare among insects in providing sophisticated parental care. Consequently, they have become model species in research analysing social evolution, the evolution of parental care and mating systems. We used the recently published N. vespilloides genome and transcriptome to develop microsatellite markers. Specifically, we developed 14 polymorphic markers with five to 13 alleles per locus and used them to investigate levels of genetic differentiation in four south Cambridgeshire (UK) populations of N. vespilloides, separated by 21 km at most. The markers revealed significant genetic structuring among populations (global FST = 0.023) with all but one of the pairwise comparisons among populations being significant. The single exception was the comparison between the two closest populations, which are approximately 2.5 km apart. In general, the microsatellite markers showed lower observed heterozygosity than expected. We infer that there is limited dispersal between populations and potentially also some inbreeding within them and suggest that this may be due to habitat fragmentation. We discuss these results in the context of recent laboratory experiments on inbreeding and beetle flight.

scholarly journals Food deprivation affects egg laying and maternal care but not offspring performance in a beetle

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 1477-1487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Richardson ◽  
Jennifer Ross ◽  
Per T Smiseth
Keyword(s):  
Food Deprivation ◽  
Egg Laying ◽  
Breeding Cycle ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Initial State ◽  
Offspring Performance ◽  
Poor Understanding ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
And Control

Abstract Individuals vary with respect to their nutritional state and such variation is an important determinant of the amount of resources individuals allocate toward reproductive functions. Currently, we have a relatively poor understanding of the downstream consequences of food deprivation on different traits associated with reproduction. Here, we address this gap by investigating how food deprivation affected different traits across the breeding cycle in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides; a species that breeds on carcasses of small vertebrates serving as food for both parents and offspring. We found that food-deprived females took longer to start egg laying than control females, which may allow them more time to feed from the carcass. There was no difference between food-deprived and control females in the number, size, laying pattern, or hatching success of eggs, suggesting that this delay allowed females to compensate for their poor initial state. However, food-deprived females spent less time providing care, suggesting that this compensation was incomplete. Finally, we found no evidence for negative effects of food deprivation on the offspring’s growth or survival, which is surprising given that food-deprived females took longer to initiate egg laying and provided less care to their offspring. Our results highlight that food deprivation can have complex effects on parental and offspring traits, and suggest that females face a trade-off between the benefits of mitigating downstream consequences of nutritional stress and the costs associated with delaying the start of reproduction.

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