Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, 44106.
Watershed Studies Institute and Department of Biological Sciences, Murray State University, Murray, KY, 42071.
Ecol Lett. 2019 Oct;22(10):1620-1628. doi: 10.1111/ele.13351. Epub 2019 Jul 29.
Although mothers influence the traits of their offspring in many ways beyond the transmission of genes, it remains unclear how important such 'maternal effects' are to phenotypic differences among individuals. Synthesizing estimates derived from detailed pedigrees, we evaluated the amount of phenotypic variation determined by maternal effects in animal populations. Maternal effects account for half as much phenotypic variation within populations as do additive genetic effects. Maternal effects most greatly affect morphology and phenology but, surprisingly, are not stronger in species with prolonged maternal care than in species without. While maternal effects influence juvenile traits more than adult traits on average, they do not decline across ontogeny for behaviour or physiology, and they do not weaken across the life cycle in species without maternal care. These findings underscore maternal effects as an important source of phenotypic variation and emphasise their potential to affect many ecological and evolutionary processes.
尽管母亲通过基因传递以外的许多方式影响后代的特征，但对于个体间表型差异中这种“母性效应”的重要性仍不清楚。我们通过综合详细的系谱得出的估计值，评估了动物种群中由母性效应决定的表型变异量。母性效应对种群内表型变异的影响是加性遗传效应的一半。母性效应对形态和物候学的影响最大，但令人惊讶的是，在具有延长母性照顾的物种中并不比在没有母性照顾的物种中更强。虽然母性效应通常比成年特征更能影响幼体特征，但在行为或生理方面，它们不会随着个体发育而下降，在没有母性照顾的物种中，它们也不会随着生命周期的变化而减弱。这些发现强调了母性效应对表型变异的重要性，并强调了它们可能会影响许多生态和进化过程。
