Data from: Parental effects alter the adaptive value of an adult behavioural trait

The parents' phenotype, or the environment they create for their young, can have long-lasting effects on their offspring, with profound evolutionary consequences. Yet virtually no work has considered how such parental effects might change the adaptive value of behavioural traits expressed by offspring upon reaching adulthood. To address this problem, we combined experiments on burying beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides) with theoretical modelling, and focussed on one adult behavioural trait in particular: the supply of parental care. We manipulated the early life environment and measured the fitness payoffs associated with the supply of parental care when larvae reached maturity. We found that (1) adults that received low levels of care as larvae were less successful at raising larger broods, and suffered greater mortality as a result: they were low quality parents. Furthermore (2) high quality males that raised offspring with low quality females subsequently suffered greater mortality than brothers of equivalent quality, which reared larvae with higher quality females. Our analyses identify three general ways in which parental effects can change the adaptive value of an adult behavioural trait: by influencing the associated fitness benefits and costs; by consequently changing the evolutionary outcome of social interactions; and by modifying the evolutionarily stable expression of behavioural traits that are themselves parental effects.

亲本的表型（phenotype），或是其为后代所营造的生长环境，可对子代产生持久影响，并带来深远的进化后果。然而目前几乎尚无研究探讨此类亲本效应（parental effects）可如何改变子代成年后所表达的行为性状（behavioural traits）的适应性价值（adaptive value）。
为解决这一问题，本研究结合了对埋葬甲（Nicrophorus vespilloides）的实验与理论建模，并特别聚焦于一项成年行为性状：亲本抚育供给。
我们对幼虫的早期生长环境进行了操控，并在幼虫成熟后，测量了与亲本抚育供给相关的适合度收益（fitness payoffs）。
研究结果显示：(1) 幼虫时期接受抚育水平较低的成虫，在抚育更大的育幼群时成功率更低，并因此面临更高的死亡率——此类成虫属于低质量亲本。此外(2) 同等质量的雄性同胞中，与低质量雌虫共同抚育子代的高质量雄性，其后续死亡率高于与高质量雌虫抚育子代的雄性个体。
本研究的分析共识别出亲本效应改变成年行为性状适应性价值的三类通用路径：一是通过影响相关的适合度收益与成本；二是由此改变社会互动的进化结局；三是修饰那些本身即为亲本效应的行为性状的进化稳定表达。