TY - JOUR

T1 - Evolutionary change in the construction of the nursery environment when parents are prevented from caring for their young directly

AU - Jarrett, Benjamin

AU - Duarte, Ana

AU - Rebar, Darren

AU - Hallett, Allysa

AU - Kilner, Rebecca

PY - 2021/11/30

Y1 - 2021/11/30

N2 - Parental care can be partitioned into traits that involve directengagement with offspring and traits that are expressed as anextended phenotype and influence the developmental environment, such as constructing a nursery. Here, we use experimentalevolution to test whether parents can evolve modifications innursery construction when they are experimentally preventedfrom supplying care directly to offspring. We exposed replicateexperimental populations of burying beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides) to different regimes of posthatching care by allowing larvae to develop in the presence (Full Care) or absence of parents(No Care). After only 13 generations of experimental evolution,we found an adaptive evolutionary increase in the pace at whichparents in the No Care populations converted a dead body into acarrion nest for larvae. Cross-fostering experiments furtherrevealed that No Care larvae performed better on a carrion nestprepared by No Care parents than did Full Care larvae. We conclude that parents construct the nursery environment in relationto their effectiveness at supplying care directly, after offspring areborn. When direct care is prevented entirely, they evolve to makecompensatory adjustments to the nursery in which their youngwill develop. The rapid evolutionary change observed in ourexperiments suggests there is considerable standing genetic variation for parental care traits in natural burying beetle populations—for reasons that remain unclear.

AB - Parental care can be partitioned into traits that involve directengagement with offspring and traits that are expressed as anextended phenotype and influence the developmental environment, such as constructing a nursery. Here, we use experimentalevolution to test whether parents can evolve modifications innursery construction when they are experimentally preventedfrom supplying care directly to offspring. We exposed replicateexperimental populations of burying beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides) to different regimes of posthatching care by allowing larvae to develop in the presence (Full Care) or absence of parents(No Care). After only 13 generations of experimental evolution,we found an adaptive evolutionary increase in the pace at whichparents in the No Care populations converted a dead body into acarrion nest for larvae. Cross-fostering experiments furtherrevealed that No Care larvae performed better on a carrion nestprepared by No Care parents than did Full Care larvae. We conclude that parents construct the nursery environment in relationto their effectiveness at supplying care directly, after offspring areborn. When direct care is prevented entirely, they evolve to makecompensatory adjustments to the nursery in which their youngwill develop. The rapid evolutionary change observed in ourexperiments suggests there is considerable standing genetic variation for parental care traits in natural burying beetle populations—for reasons that remain unclear.

U2 - 10.1073/pnas.2102450118

DO - 10.1073/pnas.2102450118

M3 - Article

VL - 118

JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA

JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA

SN - 0027-8424

IS - 48

M1 - e2102450118

ER -