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 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 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 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.

scholarly journals Parental care buffers against effects of ambient temperature on offspring performance in an insect

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 1443-1450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Grew ◽  
Tom Ratz ◽  
Jon Richardson ◽  
Per T Smiseth
Keyword(s):  
Ambient Temperature ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Female Parent ◽  
Larval Survival ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Offspring Performance ◽  
Behavioral Mechanism ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides

AbstractUnderstanding how animals respond to and cope with variation in ambient temperature is an important priority. The reason for this is that ambient temperature is a key component of the physical environment that influences offspring performance in a wide range of ectotherms and endotherms. Here, we investigate whether posthatching parental care provides a behavioral mechanism for buffering against the effects of ambient temperature on offspring in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. We used a 3 × 2 factorial design where we manipulated ambient temperature (15, 20, or 25 °C) and parental care (presence or absence of a female parent after hatching). We found that the effect of ambient temperature on offspring performance was conditional upon the presence or absence of a caring female. Fewer larvae survived in the absence than in the presence of a caring female at 15 °C while there was no difference in larval survival at 20 and 25 °C. Our results show that parental care buffers against some of the detrimental effects of variation in ambient temperature on offspring. We suggest that posthatching parental care may buffer against such effects by creating a more benign environment or by boosting offspring resilience toward stressors. Our results have important implications for our understanding of the evolution of parental care because they suggest that the evolution of parental care could allow species to expand their geographical range to colonize areas with harsher climatic conditions than they otherwise would tolerate.

scholarly journals Biparental age effects in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilary Cope ◽  
Edward Ivimey-Cook ◽  
Jacob Moorad
Keyword(s):  
Maternal Age ◽  
Larval Survival ◽  
Age Effects ◽  
Paternal Age ◽  
Offspring Size ◽  
Laboratory Population ◽  
Parental Age ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Negative Results ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides

AbstractParental age at reproduction influences offspring size and survival by affecting prenatal and postnatal conditions in a wide variety of species, including humans. However, most investigations into this manifestation of ageing focus upon maternal age effects; the effects of paternal age and interactions between maternal and paternal age are often neglected. Furthermore, even when maternal age effects are studied, pre- and postnatal effects are confounded. Using a cross-fostered experimental design, we investigated the joint effects of paternal and pre- and postnatal maternal ages on numerous offspring outcomes in a laboratory population of a species of burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides. When we correct our tests for significance for multiple comparisons, we found no clear evidence for any parental effect senescence acting on egg size, larval weight, or larval survival. Nor did we find a statistical effect of paternal or egg producer age on the outcomes of foster mothers as measured by weight change experienced during caregiving. These findings are consistent with recent negative results reported in a similar study of N. vespilloides maternal age effects while also expanding these to other offspring traits and to paternal age effects. We discuss how the peculiar life history of this species may promote selection to resist the evolution of parental age effects, and how this might have influenced our ability to detect senescence.

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 Parental care buffers against inbreeding depression in burying beetles

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (26) ◽  
pp. 8031-8035 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Pilakouta ◽  
Seonaidh Jamieson ◽  
Jacob A. Moorad ◽  
Per T. Smiseth
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Inbreeding Depression ◽  
Maternal Care ◽  
Female Parent ◽  
Larval Survival ◽  
Environmental Stresses ◽  
Fitness Costs ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Joint Influence ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides

When relatives mate, their inbred offspring often suffer a reduction in fitness-related traits known as “inbreeding depression.” There is mounting evidence that inbreeding depression can be exacerbated by environmental stresses such as starvation, predation, parasitism, and competition. Parental care may play an important role as a buffer against inbreeding depression in the offspring by alleviating these environmental stresses. Here, we examine the effect of parental care on the fitness costs of inbreeding in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, an insect with facultative parental care. We used a 2 × 2 factorial design with the following factors: (i) the presence or absence of a caring female parent during larval development and (ii) inbred or outbred offspring. We examined the joint influence of maternal care and inbreeding status on fitness-related offspring traits to test the hypothesis that maternal care improves the performance of inbred offspring more than that of outbred offspring. Indeed, the female's presence led to a higher increase in larval survival in inbred than in outbred broods. Receiving care at the larval stage also increased the lifespan of inbred but not outbred adults, suggesting that the beneficial buffering effects of maternal care can persist long after the offspring have become independent. Our results show that parental care has the potential to moderate the severity of inbreeding depression, which in turn may favor inbreeding tolerance and influence the evolution of mating systems and other inbreeding-avoidance mechanisms.

Can trust become a factor of economic growth? Dynamic changes in the level of trust of Russian youth

2020 ◽  
pp. 92-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. I. Bakhtigaraeva ◽  
A. A. Stavinskaya
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Dynamic Changes ◽  
Generalized Trust ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
The Future ◽  
Analysis Of Dynamics

The article considers the role of trust in the economy, the mechanisms of its accumulation and the possibility of using it as one of the growth factors in the future. The advantages and disadvantages of measuring the level of generalized trust using two alternative questions — about trusting people in general and trusting strangers — are analyzed. The results of the analysis of dynamics of the level of generalized trust among Russian youth, obtained within the study of the Institute for National Projects in 10 regions of Russia, are presented. It is shown that there are no significant changes in trust in people in general during the study at university. At the same time, the level of trust in strangers falls, which can negatively affect the level of trust in the country as a whole, and as a result have negative effects on the development of the economy in the future. Possible causes of the observed trends and the role of universities are discussed. Also the question about the connection between the level of education and generalized trust in countries with different quality of the institutional environment is raised.

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