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Transcriptomes of parents identify parenting strategies and sexual conflict in a subsocial beetle

Parenting in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides is complex and, unusually, the sex and number of parents that can be present is flexible. Such flexibility is expected to involve specialized behaviour by the two sexes under biparental conditions. Here, we show that offspring fare equally wel...

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Autores principales: Parker, Darren J., Cunningham, Christopher B., Walling, Craig A., Stamper, Clare E., Head, Megan L., Roy-Zokan, Eileen M., McKinney, Elizabeth C., Ritchie, Michael G., Moore, Allen J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4598741/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26416581
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9449
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author Parker, Darren J.
Cunningham, Christopher B.
Walling, Craig A.
Stamper, Clare E.
Head, Megan L.
Roy-Zokan, Eileen M.
McKinney, Elizabeth C.
Ritchie, Michael G.
Moore, Allen J.
author_facet Parker, Darren J.
Cunningham, Christopher B.
Walling, Craig A.
Stamper, Clare E.
Head, Megan L.
Roy-Zokan, Eileen M.
McKinney, Elizabeth C.
Ritchie, Michael G.
Moore, Allen J.
author_sort Parker, Darren J.
collection PubMed
description Parenting in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides is complex and, unusually, the sex and number of parents that can be present is flexible. Such flexibility is expected to involve specialized behaviour by the two sexes under biparental conditions. Here, we show that offspring fare equally well regardless of the sex or number of parents present. Comparing transcriptomes, we find a largely overlapping set of differentially expressed genes in both uniparental and biparental females and in uniparental males including vitellogenin, associated with reproduction, and takeout, influencing sex-specific mating and feeding behaviour. Gene expression in biparental males is similar to that in non-caring states. Thus, being ‘biparental’ in N. vespilloides describes the family social organization rather than the number of directly parenting individuals. There was no specialization; instead, in biparental families, direct male parental care appears to be limited with female behaviour unchanged. This should lead to strong sexual conflict.
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spelling pubmed-45987412015-10-21 Transcriptomes of parents identify parenting strategies and sexual conflict in a subsocial beetle Parker, Darren J. Cunningham, Christopher B. Walling, Craig A. Stamper, Clare E. Head, Megan L. Roy-Zokan, Eileen M. McKinney, Elizabeth C. Ritchie, Michael G. Moore, Allen J. Nat Commun Article Parenting in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides is complex and, unusually, the sex and number of parents that can be present is flexible. Such flexibility is expected to involve specialized behaviour by the two sexes under biparental conditions. Here, we show that offspring fare equally well regardless of the sex or number of parents present. Comparing transcriptomes, we find a largely overlapping set of differentially expressed genes in both uniparental and biparental females and in uniparental males including vitellogenin, associated with reproduction, and takeout, influencing sex-specific mating and feeding behaviour. Gene expression in biparental males is similar to that in non-caring states. Thus, being ‘biparental’ in N. vespilloides describes the family social organization rather than the number of directly parenting individuals. There was no specialization; instead, in biparental families, direct male parental care appears to be limited with female behaviour unchanged. This should lead to strong sexual conflict. Nature Publishing Group 2015-09-29 /pmc/articles/PMC4598741/ /pubmed/26416581 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9449 Text en Copyright © 2015, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Parker, Darren J.
Cunningham, Christopher B.
Walling, Craig A.
Stamper, Clare E.
Head, Megan L.
Roy-Zokan, Eileen M.
McKinney, Elizabeth C.
Ritchie, Michael G.
Moore, Allen J.
Transcriptomes of parents identify parenting strategies and sexual conflict in a subsocial beetle
title Transcriptomes of parents identify parenting strategies and sexual conflict in a subsocial beetle
title_full Transcriptomes of parents identify parenting strategies and sexual conflict in a subsocial beetle
title_fullStr Transcriptomes of parents identify parenting strategies and sexual conflict in a subsocial beetle
title_full_unstemmed Transcriptomes of parents identify parenting strategies and sexual conflict in a subsocial beetle
title_short Transcriptomes of parents identify parenting strategies and sexual conflict in a subsocial beetle
title_sort transcriptomes of parents identify parenting strategies and sexual conflict in a subsocial beetle
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4598741/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26416581
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9449
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