Data from: Adaptive maternal behavioral plasticity and developmental programming mitigate the transgenerational effects of temperature in dung beetles

Phenotypic plasticity allows organisms to cope with rapid environmental change. Yet exactly when during ontogeny plastic responses are elicited, whether plastic responses produced in one generation influence phenotypic variation and fitness in subsequent generations, and the role of plasticity in shaping population divergences, remains overall poorly understood. Here, we use the dung beetle <i>Onthophagus taurus</i> to assess plastic responses to temperature at several life stages bridging three generations and compare these responses across three recently diverged populations. We find that beetles reared at hotter temperatures grow less than those reared at mild temperatures, and that this attenuated growth has transgenerational consequences by reducing offspring size and survival in subsequent generations. However, we also find evidence that plasticity may mitigate these consequences in two ways: (i) mothers modify the temperature of their offspring’s developmental environment via behavioral plasticity and (ii) in one population, offspring exhibit accelerated growth when exposed to hot temperatures during very early development (“developmental programming”). Lastly, our study reveals that offspring responses to temperature diverged among populations in fewer than 100 generations, possibly in response to range-specific changes in climatic or social conditions.

表型可塑性（phenotypic plasticity）可赋予生物应对快速环境变化的能力。但目前学界对以下核心问题仍缺乏系统性的深入认知：在个体发育（ontogeny）过程中，可塑性反应具体于何时被触发；某一世代产生的可塑性反应是否会影响后续世代的表型变异与适合度（fitness）；以及可塑性在塑造种群分化中所发挥的作用。
本研究以蜣螂（*Onthophagus taurus*）为实验对象，对其跨越三代的多个生命阶段对温度的可塑性反应展开评估，并比较了三个新近分化种群间的这类反应差异。研究发现，相较于饲养于温和温度环境中的个体，高温饲养的蜣螂生长更为迟缓，且这种受抑制的生长会产生跨代效应——会降低后续世代的子代体型与存活率。
不过本研究同时发现，可塑性或可通过两种途径缓解此类负面影响：其一，母体可通过行为可塑性（behavioral plasticity）改变子代发育环境的温度；其二，在其中一个种群中，若子代在发育极早期暴露于高温环境，则会表现出生长加速的现象（即发育编程（developmental programming））。
此外，本研究还揭示，仅在不足100代的演化时间内，子代对温度的可塑性反应就已在种群间出现分化，这可能是为了适应不同种群分布区域的气候或社会环境变化。