Offspring reverse transcriptome responses to maternal deprivation when reared with pathogens in an insect with facultative family life.

ABSTRACT: Offspring of species with facultative family life are able to live with and without parents (i.e. to adjust to extreme changes in their social environment). While these adjustments are well understood on a phenotypic level, their genetic underpinnings remain surprisingly understudied. Investigating gene expression changes in response to parental absence may elucidate the genetic constraints driving evolutionary transitions between solitary and family life. Here, we manipulated maternal presence to observe gene expression changes in the fat body of juvenile European earwigs, an insect with facultative family life. Because parents typically protect offspring against pathogens, expression changes were recorded in pathogen-free and pathogen-exposed environments. We found that manipulating mate

SUBMITTER: Korner M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7282899 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature