title: Aging parasites produce offspring with poor fitness prospects.
abstract: Senescing individuals have poor survival prospects and low fecundity. They can also produce offspring with reduced survival and reproductive success. We tested the effect of parental age on the performance of descendants in the nematodeHeligmosomoides polygyrus, an intestinal parasite of rodents. We found that offspring of senescing worms had reduced within-host survival and reduced egg shedding over the first month post-infection compared with offspring produced by young parents. These results suggest that declining offspring quality is a component of senescence in parasitic nematodes and might have evolutionary consequences for the optimal schedule of age-dependent investment into reproductive effort.
authors.affiliation: Biogéosciences, CNRS UMR6282, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 6 Bd Gabriel, 21000 Dijon, France.
authors.forename: Cédric
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lippens
authors.affiliation: Biogéosciences, CNRS UMR6282, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 6 Bd Gabriel, 21000 Dijon, France.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Faivre
authors.affiliation: Biogéosciences, CNRS UMR6282, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 6 Bd Gabriel, 21000 Dijon, France.
authors.forename: Clothilde
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lechenault
authors.affiliation: Biogéosciences, CNRS UMR6282, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 6 Bd Gabriel, 21000 Dijon, France gabriele.sorci@u-bourgogne.fr.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0799-3995
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sorci
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D008136:Longevity; D051379:Mice; D009351:Nematospiroides dubius / Q000502:physiology*; D012098:Reproduction; D017206:Strongylida Infections / Q000469:parasitology*; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Heligmosomoides polygyrus; infection; offspring fitness; parental age; senescence