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）赋予生物体应对快速环境变化的能力。然而目前仍有多项核心议题尚未得到充分阐释：个体发育（ontogeny）过程中，可塑性反应究竟于何时被触发？某一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）？以及可塑性在种群分化形成过程中所扮演的角色究竟为何？本研究以蜣螂*Onthophagus taurus*为实验材料，评估其在跨越三个世代的多个生命阶段中对温度的可塑性响应，并对比三个近期分化种群间的此类响应差异。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速率显著更低；且这种生长受抑现象会产生跨代效应，降低后续世代后代的体型大小与存活率。不过本研究同时发现，可塑性可通过两种途径缓解此类负面效应：其一，母体可通过行为可塑性（behavioral plasticity）调控后代发育环境的温度；其二，在其中一个种群中，若后代于发育极早期暴露于高温环境，会表现出生长加速的现象（即“发育编程（developmental programming）”）。最后，本研究揭示，仅在不足100代的演化时间内，不同种群间后代对温度的响应已出现显著分化，这可能是为适应不同分布范围的气候或社会环境变化所产生的适应性演化结果。