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Maternal effects in disease resistance: poor maternal environment increases offspring resistance to an insect virus.

ABSTRACT: Maternal effects can be adaptive and because of their intrinsic time delays may have important effects on population dynamics. In vertebrates, and increasingly invertebrates, it is well established that offspring defence is in part determined by maternal parasite exposure. It has also been suggested that there may be indirect maternal effects on immunity mediated by other components of the maternal environment, including density and resource availability. Here, we examine the effect maternal resource availability has on the immunity of offspring in an insect-virus system. We use five different maternal resource levels and examine immunity in the offspring both directly, by challenge with a virus, and by measuring a major component of the immune system, across three offspring environments. Both the direct infection assay and the measure of immunocompetence show clearly that offspring from mothers in poor environments are more resistant to parasites. This may result from life-history optimization of mothers in poor environments, or because the poor environment acts as a cue for higher disease risk in the next generation. This emphasizes the importance of maternal effects on disease resistance, mediated through indirect environmental factors that will have important implications to both the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of host-parasite interactions.

SUBMITTER: Boots M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3427573 | biostudies-other | 2012 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Maternal effects in disease resistance: poor maternal environment increases offspring resistance to an insect virus.

Boots Mike M Roberts Katherine E KE

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20120725 1744

Maternal effects can be adaptive and because of their intrinsic time delays may have important effects on population dynamics. In vertebrates, and increasingly invertebrates, it is well established that offspring defence is in part determined by maternal parasite exposure. It has also been suggested that there may be indirect maternal effects on immunity mediated by other components of the maternal environment, including density and resource availability. Here, we examine the effect maternal res ...[more]

PMID: 22833270

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Project description:Oocytes undergo a recently discovered mitochondrial proteome remodeling event in flies1, frogs1, and humans2. This oocyte mitochondrial remodeling event, which includes substantial changes in electron transport chain (ETC) subunit abundance1,2, is regulated by maternal insulin signaling1. However, why oocytes undergo mitochondrial remodeling is unknown, with some speculating that it might be a conserved mechanism to protect oocytes from genotoxic damage by reactive oxygen species (ROS)2. In Caenorhabditis elegans, we previously found that maternal exposure to osmotic stress drives a 50-fold increase in offspring survival in response to future osmotic stress, and that this intergenerational adaptation is regulated by insulin signaling to oocytes3. Here, we used proteomics and genetic manipulations to show that insulin signaling to oocytes regulates offspring’s ability to adapt to future stress via a mechanism that depends on ETC composition in maternal germ cells/oocytes. Specifically, we found that maternally expressed mutant alleles of nduf-7 (complex I subunit) or isp-1 (complex III subunit) altered offspring’s response to osmotic stress at hatching independently of offspring genotype. Furthermore, we found that expressing wild-type isp-1 in maternal germ cells (oocytes) was sufficient to restore offspring’s normal response to osmotic stress. Chemical mutagenesis screens revealed that oocyte ETC composition regulates offspring’s response to osmotic stress by altering AMP kinase function in offspring which in turn regulates both ATP and glycerol metabolism in offspring in response to continued osmotic stress. To our knowledge, these data are the first to show that changes in oocyte mitochondrial ETC composition can affect an animal phenotype that manifests after embryonic development is complete. The data also suggest that the reason diverse animals exhibit insulin regulated remodeling of oocyte mitochondria might be to tailor offspring metabolism to best match the environment of their mother.

Dataset Information

Maternal effects in disease resistance: poor maternal environment increases offspring resistance to an insect virus.

Publications

Maternal effects in disease resistance: poor maternal environment increases offspring resistance to an insect virus.

Similar Datasets

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