Data from: Transgenerational interactions between pesticide exposure and warming in a vector mosquito

While transgenerational plasticity may buffer ectotherms to warming and pesticides separately, it remains unknown how combined exposure to warming and pesticides in the parental generation shapes the vulnerability to these stressors in the offspring. We studied the transgenerational effects of single and combined exposure to warming (4°C increase) and the pesticide chlorpyrifos on life history traits of the vector mosquito Culex pipiens. Parental exposure to a single stressor, either warming or the pesticide, had negative effects on the offspring: both parental exposure to warming and to the pesticide resulted in an overall lower offspring survival, and a delayed offspring metamorphosis. Parental exposure to a single stressor did, however, not alter the vulnerability of the offspring to the same stressor in terms of survival. Parental pesticide exposure resulted in larger offspring when the offspring experienced the same stressor as the parents. Within both the parental and offspring generations, warming made the pesticide more toxic in terms of survival. Yet, this synergism disappeared in the offspring of parents exposed to both stressors simultaneously because in this condition the pesticide was already more lethal at the lower temperature. Our results indicate that transgenerational effects will not increase the ability of this vector species to deal with pesticides in a warming world. Bifactorial transgenerational experiments are crucial to understand the combined impact of warming and pesticides across generations, hence to assess the efficacy of vector control in a warming world.

虽然跨代可塑性（transgenerational plasticity）可分别为外温动物（ectotherms）提供针对变暖与农药的胁迫缓冲，但亲本世代同时暴露于变暖与农药时，其后代对这些胁迫因子的易感性会受到何种影响仍未明确。本研究以媒介蚊类尖音库蚊（Culex pipiens）为研究对象，探讨了单独及联合暴露于变暖（升温4℃）与农药毒死蜱（chlorpyrifos）对其生活史性状的跨代效应。亲本单独暴露于任一胁迫因子（变暖或农药）均会对后代产生负面影响：无论是亲本暴露于变暖还是农药，均会导致后代整体存活率降低，且后代变态发育延迟。不过，亲本单独暴露于某一胁迫因子时，并未改变后代对该同种胁迫因子的存活易感性。当后代与亲本经历相同的胁迫因子时，亲本的农药暴露会使后代个体体型更大。在亲本与后代两个世代中，变暖均会使农药在存活层面的毒性增强。然而，这种协同效应在同时暴露于两种胁迫因子的亲本的后代中消失了——因为在该实验条件下，农药在较低温度下已具备更强的致死性。本研究结果表明，在变暖的全球背景下，跨代效应并不会提升该媒介蚊类应对农药的能力。双因子跨代实验对于理解变暖与农药对跨世代的联合影响至关重要，因此也有助于评估变暖背景下媒介生物防控的有效性。