Littlefair Joanne E, Knell Robert J
School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2016 Dec 29;11(12):e0168869. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0168869. eCollection 2016.
It is increasingly clear that parental environment can play an important role in determining offspring phenotype. These "transgenerational effects" have been linked to many different components of the environment, including toxin exposure, infection with pathogens and parasites, temperature and food quality. In this study, we focus on the latter, asking how variation in the quantity and quality of nutrition affects future generations. Previous studies have shown that artificial diets are a useful tool to examine the within-generation effects of variation in macronutrient content on life history traits, and could therefore be applied to investigations of the transgenerational effects of parental diet. Synthetic diets varying in total macronutrient content and protein: carbohydrate ratios were used to examine both within- and trans-generational effects on life history traits in a generalist stored product pest, the Indian meal moth Plodia interpunctella. The macronutrient composition of the diet was important for shaping within-generation life history traits, including pupal weight, adult weight, and phenoloxidase activity, and had indirect effects via maternal weight on fecundity. Despite these clear within-generation effects on the biology of P. interpunctella, diet composition had no transgenerational effects on the life history traits of offspring. P. interpunctella mothers were able to maintain their offspring quality, possibly at the expense of their own somatic condition, despite high variation in dietary macronutrient composition. This has important implications for the plastic biology of this successful generalist pest.
越来越明显的是，亲代环境在决定子代表型方面可以发挥重要作用。这些“跨代效应”与环境的许多不同组成部分有关，包括接触毒素、感染病原体和寄生虫、温度以及食物质量。在本研究中，我们关注后者，探讨营养数量和质量的变化如何影响后代。先前的研究表明，人工饲料是检验大量营养素含量变化对生活史特征的代内效应的有用工具，因此可应用于亲代饮食跨代效应的研究。使用总大量营养素含量和蛋白质：碳水化合物比例不同的合成饲料，来检验对一种多食性仓储害虫——印度谷螟（Plodia interpunctella）生活史特征的代内和跨代效应。饲料的大量营养素组成对于塑造代内生活史特征很重要，包括蛹重、成虫体重和酚氧化酶活性，并且通过母体体重对繁殖力有间接影响。尽管对印度谷螟的生物学有这些明显的代内效应，但饲料组成对后代的生活史特征没有跨代效应。尽管饮食中大量营养素组成变化很大，但印度谷螟母亲能够维持其后代的质量，这可能是以牺牲它们自身的身体状况为代价的。这对这种成功的多食性害虫的可塑性生物学具有重要意义。
