Data from: Developmental stress increases reproductive success in male zebra finches

There is increasing evidence that exposure to stress during development can have sustained effects on animal phenotype and performance across life-history stages. For example, developmental stress has been shown to decrease the quality of sexually selected traits (e.g. bird song), and therefore is thought to decrease reproductive success. However, animals exposed to developmental stress may compensate for poor quality sexually selected traits by pursuing alternative reproductive tactics. Here, we examine the effects of developmental stress on adult male reproductive investment and success in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). We tested the hypothesis that males exposed to developmental stress sire fewer offspring through extra-pair copulations (EPCs), but invest more in parental care. To test this hypothesis, we fed nestlings corticosterone (CORT; the dominant avian stress hormone) during the nestling period and measured their adult reproductive success using common garden breeding experiments. We found that nestlings reared by CORT-fed fathers received more parental care compared with nestlings reared by control fathers. Consequently, males fed CORT during development reared nestlings in better condition compared with control males. Contrary to the prediction that developmental stress decreases male reproductive success, we found that CORT-fed males also sired more offspring and were less likely to rear non-genetic offspring compared with control males, and thus had greater overall reproductive success. These data are the first to demonstrate that developmental stress can have a positive effect on fitness via changes in reproductive success and provide support for an adaptive role of developmental stress in shaping animal phenotype.

Usage Notes
Dryad data

越来越多的证据表明，发育阶段暴露于应激源会对动物的表型及跨生活史阶段的表现产生持续影响。例如，已有研究证实发育应激会降低性选择性状（sexually selected traits，如鸟鸣）的质量，因此被认为会降低个体的繁殖成功率。然而，遭受发育应激的动物可通过采取替代性繁殖策略，弥补性选择性状的缺陷。本研究以斑胸草雀（Taeniopygia guttata）为实验对象，探究发育应激对成年雄性繁殖投入与繁殖成功率的影响。我们验证了如下假说：暴露于发育应激的雄性通过婚外配行为（extra-pair copulations, EPCs）产下的后代数量更少，但会在亲本抚育上投入更多资源。为验证该假说，我们在雏鸟期给幼鸟喂食皮质酮（corticosterone, CORT，鸟类主要的应激激素），并通过同质园繁育实验测定其成年后的繁殖成功率。研究结果显示，由喂食皮质酮的雄性抚育的雏鸟，相较于对照组雄性抚育的雏鸟，获得了更多的亲本抚育。由此可见，发育阶段喂食皮质酮的雄性，其抚育的雏鸟身体状况更佳。与"发育应激会降低雄性繁殖成功率"的预测相悖，我们发现喂食皮质酮的雄性产下的后代数量更多，且相较对照组雄性更少抚育非亲生后代，因此整体繁殖成功率更高。本数据集首次证实，发育应激可通过改变繁殖成功率对动物适合度产生积极影响，并为发育应激在塑造动物表型中的适应性作用提供了支撑。使用备注：Dryad数据集