Tschirren Barbara, Ziegler Ann-Kathrin, Canale Cindy I, Okuliarová Monika, Zeman Michal, Giraudeau Mathieu
Physiol Biochem Zool. 2016 Sep-Oct;89(5):448-52. doi: 10.1086/687571. Epub 2016 Jul 1.
Yolk androgens of maternal origin are important mediators of prenatal maternal effects. Although in many species short-term benefits of exposure to high yolk androgen concentrations for the offspring have been observed, females differ substantially in the amount of androgens they transfer to their eggs. It suggests that costs for the offspring or the mother constrain the evolution of maternal hormone transfer. However, to date, the nature of these costs remains poorly understood. Unlike most previous work that focused on potential costs for the offspring, we here investigated whether high yolk testosterone transfer is associated with metabolic costs (i.e., a higher metabolic rate) for the mother. We show that Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) females that deposit higher testosterone concentrations into their eggs have a higher resting metabolic rate. Because a higher metabolic rate is often associated with a shorter life span, this relationship may explain the negative association between yolk testosterone transfer and female longevity observed in the wild. Our results suggest that metabolic costs for the mother can balance the short-term benefits of yolk testosterone exposure for the offspring, thereby contributing to the maintenance of variation in maternal yolk hormone transfer in natural populations.
源自母体的卵黄雄激素是产前母体效应的重要介导因子。尽管在许多物种中已观察到后代暴露于高浓度卵黄雄激素会带来短期益处，但雌性向其卵中转移的雄激素量存在很大差异。这表明后代或母体的代价限制了母体激素转移的进化。然而，迄今为止，这些代价的本质仍知之甚少。与以往大多数关注后代潜在代价的研究不同，我们在此研究了高卵黄睾酮转移是否与母体的代谢代价（即更高的代谢率）相关。我们发现，向卵中沉积更高浓度睾酮的日本鹌鹑（Coturnix japonica）雌性具有更高的静息代谢率。由于更高的代谢率通常与较短的寿命相关，这种关系可能解释了在野外观察到的卵黄睾酮转移与雌性寿命之间的负相关。我们的结果表明，母体的代谢代价可以平衡卵黄睾酮暴露对后代的短期益处，从而有助于维持自然种群中母体卵黄激素转移的变异。
