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Parent-offspring conflict and the persistence of pregnancy-induced hypertension in modern humans.

ABSTRACT: Preeclampsia is a major cause of perinatal mortality and disease affecting 5-10% of all pregnancies worldwide, but its etiology remains poorly understood despite considerable research effort. Parent-offspring conflict theory suggests that such hypertensive disorders of pregnancy may have evolved through the ability of fetal genes to increase maternal blood pressure as this enhances general nutrient supply. However, such mechanisms for inducing hypertension in pregnancy would need to incur sufficient offspring health benefits to compensate for the obvious risks for maternal and fetal health towards the end of pregnancy in order to explain why these disorders have not been removed by natural selection in our hunter-gatherer ancestors. We analyzed >750,000 live births in the Danish National Patient Registry and all registered medical diagnoses for up to 30 years after birth. We show that offspring exposed to pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) in trimester 1 had significantly reduced overall later-life disease risks, but increased risks when PIH exposure started or developed as preeclampsia in later trimesters. Similar patterns were found for first-year mortality. These results suggest that early PIH leading to improved postpartum survival and health represents a balanced compromise between the reproductive interests of parents and offspring, whereas later onset of PIH may reflect an unbalanced parent-offspring conflict at the detriment of maternal and offspring health.

SUBMITTER: Hollegaard B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3581540 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Parent-offspring conflict and the persistence of pregnancy-induced hypertension in modern humans.

Hollegaard Birgitte B Byars Sean G SG Lykke Jacob J Boomsma Jacobus J JJ

PloS one 20130225 2

Preeclampsia is a major cause of perinatal mortality and disease affecting 5-10% of all pregnancies worldwide, but its etiology remains poorly understood despite considerable research effort. Parent-offspring conflict theory suggests that such hypertensive disorders of pregnancy may have evolved through the ability of fetal genes to increase maternal blood pressure as this enhances general nutrient supply. However, such mechanisms for inducing hypertension in pregnancy would need to incur suffic ...[more]

PMID: 23451092

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Project description:Maternal effects occur when the mother's phenotype influences her offspring's phenotype. In birds, differential allocation in egg yolk components can allow mothers to compensate for the competitive disadvantage of junior chicks. We hypothesize that the parent-older chick conflict peaks at intermediate conditions: parents benefit from the younger chick(s) survival, but its death benefits the older chick in terms of growth and survival. We thus expect maternal compensation to follow a bell-shaped pattern in relation to environmental conditions. We studied a black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) population where previous results revealed increased allocation of yolk testosterone in younger as compared to older chicks in intermediate conditions, in line with our theoretical framework. We therefore predicted a maternally induced increase in aggressiveness, growth, and survival for younger chicks born in intermediate environmental conditions. Controlling for parental effects and chick sex, we manipulated food availability before egg laying to create a situation with intermediate (Unfed group) and good (Fed group) environmental conditions. Within each feeding treatment, we further created experimental broods where the natural hatching order was reversed to maximize our chances to observe an effect of feeding treatment on the younger chicks' aggressiveness. As predicted, we found that chick aggressiveness was higher in younger chicks born from the Unfed group (i.e., in intermediate environmental conditions), but only when they were put in a senior position, in reversed broods. Predictions on growth and survival were not confirmed. Mothers thus seem to favor the competitiveness of their younger chick in intermediate conditions via egg yolk components, but our study also suggests that hatching asynchrony need to be small for maternal compensation to be efficient. We emphasize the need for further studies investigating other chick behaviors (e.g., begging) and focusing on the relative role of different yolk components in shaping parent-offspring conflict over sibling competition.

Project description:Importance:Previous studies have shown an inverse association between offspring religiosity and suicidal ideation/attempts, but the association of parent religiosity on offspring suicidal ideation/attempts has not been examined. Objective:To examine associations of parent and offspring religiosity with suicide ideation and attempts in offspring. Design, Setting, and Participants:The study is based on offspring (generation 3) from a 3-generation family study at New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University, in which generations 2 and 3 were defined as being at high risk or low risk for major depressive disorder because of the presence or absence of major depressive disorder in generation 1. The association between suicidal behaviors (ideation/attempts) and parent and offspring religiosity in generation 3 offspring aged 6 to 18 years (214 offspring from 112 nuclear families) was examined. Main Outcomes and Measures:Parents' psychiatric diagnoses and suicidal behaviors were assessed with the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia, and offspring were independently assessed using the child version. Two measures of religiosity were assessed: religious importance and religious attendance. Logistic regressions in the framework of generalized estimation equations were performed to analyze offspring suicidal behaviors while adjusting for sibling correlation and offspring age, sex, and familial depression risk status. Results:Of 214 offspring, 112 (52.3%) were girls. Offspring religious importance was associated with a lower risk for suicidal behavior in girls (odds ratio [OR], 0.48; 95% CI, 0.33-0.70) but not in boys (OR, 1.15; 95% CI, 0.74-1.80) (religiosity by sex interaction, P = .05). Religious attendance was associated with a lower risk for suicidal behavior in girls (OR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.49-0.84) but not boys (OR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.69-1.27) (religiosity by sex interaction, P = .17). Parent religious importance was associated with a lower risk for offspring suicidal behavior (OR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.41-0.91) but not parent religious attendance. When parent and offspring religious importance were considered simultaneously, we found a lower risk associated with parental religious importance (OR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.39-0.96) independent of offspring importance. These associations were independent of parental depression, marital status, and parental suicide ideation. Conclusions and Relevance:In this study, parental belief in religious importance was associated with lower risk for suicidal behavior in offspring independent of an offspring's own belief about religious importance and other known parental factors, such as parental depression, suicidal behavior, and divorce.

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Parent-offspring conflict and the persistence of pregnancy-induced hypertension in modern humans.

Publications

Parent-offspring conflict and the persistence of pregnancy-induced hypertension in modern humans.

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