Indirect parental effects on offspring viability by egg-derived fluids in an external fertilizer.

ABSTRACT: The capacity for parents to influence offspring phenotypes via nongenetic inheritance is currently a major area of focus in evolutionary biology. Intriguing recent evidence suggests that sexual interactions among males and females, both before and during mating, are important mediators of such effects. Sexual interactions typically extend beyond gamete release, involving both sperm and eggs, and their associated fluids. However, the potential for gamete-level interactions to induce nongenetic parental effects remains under-investigated. Here, we test for such effects using an emerging model system for studying gamete interactions, the external fertilizer Mytilus galloprovincialis. We employed a split-ejaculate design to test whether exposing sperm to egg-derived chemicals (ECs) from

SUBMITTER: Lymbery RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7739940 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature