Maternal provisioning of an obligate symbiont in a sponge.

ABSTRACT: The transmission of microbes from mother to offspring is an ancient, advantageous, and widespread feature of metazoan life history. Despite this, little is known about the quantitative strategies taken to maintain symbioses across generations. The quantity of maternal microbes that is provided to each offspring through vertical transmission could theoretically be stochastic (no trend), consistent (an optimal range is allocated), or provisioned (a trade-off with fecundity). Examples currently come from animals that release free-living eggs (oviparous) and suggest that offspring are provided a consistent quantity of symbionts. The quantity of maternal microbes that is vertically transmitted in other major reproductive strategies has yet to be assessed. We used the brooding (viviparous) spong

SUBMITTER: Carrier TJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10154371 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature