Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2010 Feb 9;5(2):e9117. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009117.
Maternal effects--where an individual's phenotype is influenced by the phenotype or environment of its mother--are taxonomically and ecologically widespread. Yet, their role in the origin of novel, complex traits remains unclear. Here we investigate the role of maternal effects in influencing the induction of a novel resource-use phenotype. Spadefoot toad tadpoles, Spea multiplicata, often deviate from their normal development and produce a morphologically distinctive carnivore-morph phenotype, which specializes on anostracan fairy shrimp. We evaluated whether maternal investment influences expression of this novel phenotype. We found that larger females invested in larger eggs, which, in turn, produced larger tadpoles. Such larger tadpoles are better able to capture the shrimp that induce carnivores. By influencing the expression of novel resource-use phenotypes, maternal effects may play a largely underappreciated role in the origins of novelty.
母体效应——即个体的表型受其母亲的表型或环境影响——在分类学和生态学上广泛存在。然而，它们在新的复杂特征起源中的作用仍不清楚。在这里，我们研究了母体效应在影响新的资源利用表型诱导中的作用。扇尾蟾蜍的蝌蚪，Spea multiplicata，经常偏离正常发育，产生一种形态独特的肉食形态，专门捕食丰年虾。我们评估了母体投资是否影响这种新表型的表达。我们发现，体型较大的雌蛙会投入更多的资源来孵化较大的卵，而这些卵又会孵化出体型更大的蝌蚪。这种体型较大的蝌蚪更有能力捕捉到诱导出肉食性的丰年虾。通过影响新的资源利用表型的表达，母体效应可能在新特征的起源中扮演了一个很大程度上被低估的角色。
