Ramakers Jip J C, Cobben Marleen M P, Bijma Piter, Reed Thomas E, Visser Marcel E, Gienapp Phillip
Am Nat. 2018 May;191(5):E144-E158. doi: 10.1086/696847. Epub 2018 Mar 26.
Despite ample evidence for the presence of maternal effects (MEs) in a variety of traits and strong theoretical indications for their evolutionary consequences, empirical evidence to what extent MEs can influence evolutionary responses to selection remains ambiguous. We tested the degree to which MEs can alter the rate of adaptation of a key life-history trait, clutch size, using an individual-based model approach parameterized with experimental data from a long-term study of great tits (Parus major). We modeled two types of MEs: (i) an environmentally plastic ME, in which the relationship between maternal and offspring clutch size depended on the maternal environment via offspring condition, and (ii) a fixed ME, in which this relationship was constant. Although both types of ME affected the rate of adaptation following an abrupt environmental shift, the overall effects were small. We conclude that evolutionary consequences of MEs are modest at best in our study system, at least for the trait and the particular type of ME we considered here. A closer link between theoretical and empirical work on MEs would hence be useful to obtain accurate predictions about the evolutionary consequences of MEs more generally.
尽管有充分证据表明母体效应（MEs）存在于多种性状中，且有强有力的理论表明其具有进化后果，但关于MEs在多大程度上能够影响对选择的进化响应的实证证据仍不明确。我们使用基于个体的模型方法，通过对大山雀（Parus major）的长期研究中的实验数据进行参数化，来测试MEs能够改变关键生活史性状——窝卵数——的适应速率的程度。我们模拟了两种类型的MEs：（i）一种环境可塑性ME，其中母体与后代窝卵数之间的关系通过后代状况取决于母体环境；（ii）一种固定ME，其中这种关系是恒定的。尽管这两种类型的ME在环境突然变化后都影响了适应速率，但总体影响较小。我们得出结论，在我们的研究系统中，MEs的进化后果充其量是适度的，至少对于我们在此考虑的性状和特定类型的ME是如此。因此，在MEs的理论和实证工作之间建立更紧密的联系，将有助于更普遍地获得关于MEs进化后果的准确预测。
