Poor developmental conditions decrease adult body size and egg size, but not egg laying rate and survival throughout adulthood: A long-term experiment in a precocial bird.

ABSTRACT: The quality of the environment during individual development is generally considered to have long-lasting effects on performance in adulthood, but this is mainly based on observational studies that cannot pinpoint the causal pathways behind such long-term effects. In this study, we performed a randomized controlled trial to test for causal effects of a poor rearing diet on performance in growth, reproduction, and survival over the complete life course of female Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica). All individuals were housed under standardized conditions as adults to allow separating effects of the developmental environment from effects of the adult environment. The poor rearing diet led to a dramatically reduced growth, which delayed the onset of reproduction and resulted in a reduced body

SUBMITTER: Vedder O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12134424 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature