Dittrich Carolin, Huster Juliane, Rödel Mark-Oliver, Feldhaar Heike
Museum für Naturkunde Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science Berlin Germany.
Animal Ecology I, Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER) University of Bayreuth Bayreuth Germany.
Ecol Evol. 2019 Feb 21;9(6):3075-3088. doi: 10.1002/ece3.4811. eCollection 2019 Mar.
Successful reproduction is an important determinant of the fitness of an individual and of the dynamics of populations. Offspring of the European common frog () exhibit a high degree of variability in metamorphic traits. However, environmental factors alone cannot explain this phenotypic variability, and the influence of genetic factors remains to be determined. Here, we tested whether the maternal genotype influences developmental time, body size, and body condition of offspring in a forest pond in Germany. We collected fertilized eggs from all 57 clutches deposited in the pond. We used multilocus genotypes based on seven microsatellite loci to assign metamorphosed offspring to mothers and to determine the number of fathers for a single matriline. We tested the influence of genetic effects in the same environment by comparing variability of metamorphic traits within and between full-sib offspring grouped to matrilines and tested whether multiple paternity increases the variability of metamorphic traits in a single matriline. The variability in size and body condition was higher within matrilines than between them, which indicates that these traits are more strongly influenced by environmental effects, which are counteracting underlying genetic effects. The developmental time varied considerably between matrilines and variability increased with the effective number of fathers, suggesting an additive genetic effect of multiple paternity. Our results show that metamorphic traits are shaped by environmental as well as genetic effects.
成功繁殖是个体适应性以及种群动态的一个重要决定因素。欧洲普通青蛙（）的后代在变态特征方面表现出高度的变异性。然而，仅环境因素无法解释这种表型变异性，遗传因素的影响仍有待确定。在此，我们测试了母体基因型是否会影响德国一个森林池塘中青蛙后代的发育时间、体型和身体状况。我们从池塘中所有57窝产下的受精卵中进行采集。我们基于七个微卫星位点使用多位点基因型，将变态后的后代归属于其母亲，并确定单个母系中的父本数量。我们通过比较归属于母系的全同胞后代内部和之间变态特征的变异性，来测试在相同环境中遗传效应的影响，并测试多个父本是否会增加单个母系中变态特征的变异性。母系内部的体型和身体状况变异性高于母系之间，这表明这些特征受环境效应的影响更强，环境效应抵消了潜在的遗传效应。母系之间的发育时间差异很大，并且变异性随着父本的有效数量增加，这表明多个父本存在加性遗传效应。我们的结果表明，变态特征是由环境和遗传效应共同塑造的。
