School of Biological Sciences, Zoology Building, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 2TZ, United Kingdom;
Department of Landscape and Biodiversity, The Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, 7031 Trondheim, Norway.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Mar 3;117(9):4809-4814. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1908551117. Epub 2020 Feb 18.
Annual reproductive success and senescence patterns vary substantially among individuals in the wild. However, it is still seldom considered that senescence may not only affect an individual but also affect age-specific reproductive success in its offspring, generating transgenerational reproductive senescence. We used long-term data from wild yellow-bellied marmots () living in two different elevational environments to quantify age-specific reproductive success of daughters born to mothers differing in age. Contrary to prediction, daughters born to older mothers had greater annual reproductive success on average than daughters born to younger mothers, and this translated into greater lifetime reproductive success. However, in the favorable lower elevation environment, daughters born to older mothers also had greater age-specific decreases in annual reproductive success. In the harsher higher elevation environment on the other hand, daughters born to older mothers tended to die before reaching ages at which such senescent decreases could be observed. Our study highlights the importance of incorporating environment-specific transgenerational parent age effects on adult offspring age-specific life-history traits to fully understand the substantial variation observed in senescence patterns in wild populations.
在野外，个体的年繁殖成功率和衰老模式存在很大差异。然而，人们很少考虑到衰老不仅会影响个体，还会影响其后代特定年龄的繁殖成功率，从而产生跨代繁殖衰老。我们利用生活在两个不同海拔环境中的野生黄腹旱獭（）的长期数据，量化了母亲年龄不同的女儿的特定年龄的繁殖成功率。与预测相反，与年轻母亲所生的女儿相比，年老母亲所生的女儿的年繁殖成功率平均更高，这转化为更高的终生繁殖成功率。然而，在有利的低海拔环境中，年老母亲所生的女儿的年繁殖成功率也会随着年龄的增长而更快地下降。另一方面，在更为恶劣的高海拔环境中，年老母亲所生的女儿往往在达到这种衰老性下降可观察的年龄之前就死亡了。我们的研究强调了将特定环境的跨代亲代年龄效应对成年后代特定年龄生活史特征的影响纳入其中的重要性，以充分理解在野生种群中观察到的衰老模式的巨大差异。
