Data from: Offspring development and life-history variation in a water flea depends upon clone-specific integration of genetic, non-genetic and environmental cues

1. Theory predicts that offspring developmental strategies involve the integration of genetic, non-genetic and environmental ‘cues’. But it is unclear how cue integration is achieved during development, and whether this pattern is general or genotype-specific. 2. In order to test this, we manipulated the maternal and offspring environments of three genetically distinct clones of the water flea Daphnia magna taken from different populations. We then quantified the effect that the genotype, maternal environment and the offspring environment had on the development and life-histories of the three different clones. 3. Mothers responded to the same maternal environments in different ways, resulting in clone-specific maternal effects on neonate size. Offspring responses to maternal cues varied according to the trait in question and were also clone-specific. The integration of these maternal effects during development was highly context-dependent in two clones but more consistent across environments in the third. 4. Genetic, non-genetic and environmental cues contributed to offspring phenotypic variation in all three clones, but there was no general pattern linking traits to specific cues. In fact, two clones used different combinations of cues at different points in development to achieve similar phenotypic outcomes. Thus different D. magna clones integrated different combinations of cues at different points in development. Our results highlight the importance of considering variation across development and show how genotypic variation and plasticity in developmental transitions help to generate phenotypic variation. 5. Our results support the hypothesis that phenotype determination involves the integration of genetic, non-genetic and environmental cues and demonstrates that the relative contributions of different cues is highly variable.

1. 理论预测，后代的发育策略涉及遗传、非遗传与环境“线索”的整合。但目前尚不清楚发育过程中线索整合的实现机制，且该模式是否具有普遍性或仅为基因型特异性。
2. 为验证这一科学问题，我们操控了取自不同种群的3个遗传背景各异的大型溞（Daphnia magna）克隆株的母本与后代环境，随后量化了基因型、母本环境及后代环境对这3个不同克隆株发育与生活史的影响。
3. 母本对相同母本环境的响应存在差异，进而对新生个体体型产生了克隆特异性的母本效应。后代对母本线索的响应因所研究性状而异，同样具有克隆特异性。在其中两个克隆株中，发育过程中这些母本效应的整合具有高度情境依赖性，而第三个克隆株的整合模式在不同环境下则更为一致。
4. 在所有3个克隆株中，遗传、非遗传与环境线索均对后代的表型变异产生了贡献，但并未存在将性状与特定线索关联起来的通用模式。事实上，两个克隆株在发育的不同阶段会采用不同的线索组合，以实现相似的表型结果。由此可见，不同的大型溞克隆株会在发育的不同阶段整合不同的线索组合。我们的研究结果凸显了考虑发育过程中变异的重要性，并阐明了基因型变异与发育转变中的可塑性如何共同产生表型变异。
5. 我们的研究结果支持“表型决定涉及遗传、非遗传与环境线索整合”这一假说，并证实不同线索的相对贡献度存在高度变异。