Maternal corticosterone exposure has transgenerational effects on grand-offspring.
The hormone fluctuations that an animal experiences during ovulation can have lifelong effects on developing offspring. These hormones may act as an adaptive mechanism, allowing offspring to be 'pre-programmed' to survive in an unstable environment. Here, we used a transgenerational approach to examine the effects of elevated maternal corticosterone (CORT) on the future reproductive success of female offspring. We show that female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) exposed to embryonic CORT produce daughters that have equal reproductive success (clutch sizes, fertility, hatching success) compared with the daughters produced from untreated mothers, but their offspring had accelerated post-hatching growth rates and were significantly heavier by nutritional independence. Although there was no significant effect on primary offspring sex ratio, females from CORT-treated mothers produced significantly female-biased clutches by nutritional independence. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first record of a transgenerational sex ratio bias in response to elevated maternal CORT in any avian species.
Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia nykhan@uga.edu.|Department of Poultry Science, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
Nicola
0000-0002-7907-4082
N
Khan
Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.
Richard A
RA
Peters
Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.
Emily
E
Richardson
Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.
Kylie A
KA
Robert
D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects; D052284:Clutch Size / Q000187:drug effects; D003345:Corticosterone / Q000097:blood* / Q000494:pharmacology; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility / Q000187:drug effects; D046369:Finches / Q000254:growth & development*; D008297:Male; D018811:Maternal Exposure; D008431:Maternal-Fetal Exchange; D011247:Pregnancy; D012744:Sex Ratio
D003345:Corticosterone
intergenerational; maternal effects; sex allocation; stress