Parker Darren J, Cunningham Christopher B, Walling Craig A, Stamper Clare E, Head Megan L, Roy-Zokan Eileen M, McKinney Elizabeth C, Ritchie Michael G, Moore Allen J
Centre for Biological Diversity, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, Fife KY16 9TH, UK.
Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä 40014, Finland.
Nat Commun. 2015 Sep 29;6:8449. doi: 10.1038/ncomms9449.
Parenting in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides is complex and, unusually, the sex and number of parents that can be present is flexible. Such flexibility is expected to involve specialized behaviour by the two sexes under biparental conditions. Here, we show that offspring fare equally well regardless of the sex or number of parents present. Comparing transcriptomes, we find a largely overlapping set of differentially expressed genes in both uniparental and biparental females and in uniparental males including vitellogenin, associated with reproduction, and takeout, influencing sex-specific mating and feeding behaviour. Gene expression in biparental males is similar to that in non-caring states. Thus, being 'biparental' in N. vespilloides describes the family social organization rather than the number of directly parenting individuals. There was no specialization; instead, in biparental families, direct male parental care appears to be limited with female behaviour unchanged. This should lead to strong sexual conflict.
埋葬虫（Nicrophorus vespilloides）的育幼行为很复杂，而且不同寻常的是，育幼过程中亲代的性别和数量具有灵活性。这种灵活性预计会涉及双亲条件下两性的特殊行为。在此，我们表明，无论亲代的性别或数量如何，后代的生长状况都一样良好。通过比较转录组，我们发现在单亲雌性、双亲雌性以及单亲雄性中，存在大量差异表达基因的重叠集合，包括与繁殖相关的卵黄蛋白原和影响性别特异性交配及取食行为的takeout。双亲雄性中的基因表达与非育幼状态下的相似。因此，埋葬虫中的“双亲”描述的是家庭社会组织，而非直接育幼个体的数量。不存在专门化现象；相反，在双亲家庭中，雄性的直接亲代抚育似乎有限，而雌性行为不变。这应该会导致强烈的性冲突。
