Bigger is better: changes in body size explain a maternal effect of food on offspring disease resistance.

ABSTRACT: Maternal effects triggered by changes in the environment (e.g., nutrition or crowding) can influence the outcome of offspring-parasite interactions, with fitness consequences for the host and parasite. Outside of the classic example of antibody transfer in vertebrates, proximate mechanisms have been little studied, and thus, the adaptive significance of maternal effects on infection is not well resolved. We sought to determine why food-stressed mothers give birth to offspring that show a low rate of infection when the crustacean Daphnia magna is exposed to an orally infective bacterial pathogen. These more-resistant offspring are also larger at birth and feed at a lower rate. Thus, reduced disease resistance could result from slow-feeding offspring ingesting fewer bacterial spores o

SUBMITTER: Garbutt JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5330872 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature