Rogers Michaela M, Hellmann Jennifer K
Department of Biology, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH 45469, USA.
Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
R Soc Open Sci. 2025 Jan 8;12(1):240878. doi: 10.1098/rsos.240878. eCollection 2025 Jan.
Parental experiences can alter offspring phenotypes via transgenerational plasticity (TGP), which may prime offspring to adaptively respond to novel stressors, including novel predators. However, we know little about the types of sensory cues (e.g. visual, olfactory) that parents use to recognize novel predators and the consequences for offspring. Individuals may respond to novel cues if they mimic historical cues or they may need multiple sensory cues to recognize and respond to novel stimuli. We exposed threespined stickleback () males to a full factorial of visual and olfactory cues of a novel trout predator prior to fertilization and tested offspring for antipredator behaviour and survival against a live predator. Fathers exposed to visual cues oriented more to and spent time closer to the novel predator post-exposure on the first day. Paternal response to visual cues was echoed in their offspring: offspring of fathers exposed to visual cues were caught faster by a live predator, suggesting that multiple cues are not needed to induce a transgenerational effect. While visual cues elicited responses both within- and transgenerationally, they do not seem to result in adaptive priming in offspring, suggesting the possibility of maladaptive TGP in response to novel cues of predation risk.
亲代经历可通过跨代可塑性（TGP）改变子代的表型，这可能使子代能够适应性地应对新出现的应激源，包括新的捕食者。然而，我们对亲代用于识别新捕食者的感官线索类型（如视觉、嗅觉）以及对子代的影响知之甚少。如果新线索模仿历史线索，个体可能会对其做出反应，或者他们可能需要多种感官线索来识别和应对新刺激。在受精前，我们让三刺鱼（）雄性接触新鳟鱼捕食者的视觉和嗅觉线索的全因子组合，并测试子代针对活捕食者的反捕食行为和生存能力。接触视觉线索的父亲在第一天接触后对新捕食者的定向更多，且在其附近停留的时间更长。父代对视觉线索的反应在其子代中得到了呼应：接触视觉线索的父亲的子代被活捕食者捕获的速度更快，这表明诱导跨代效应不需要多种线索。虽然视觉线索在代内和代际间都引发了反应，但它们似乎并未导致子代产生适应性的预适应，这表明在应对捕食风险的新线索时可能存在适应不良的跨代可塑性。
