Genes and environment: on the interplay of nature and nurture.

Over the past decade, birds have proven to be excellent models to study maternal effects, in particular hormone-mediated maternal effects, where offspring phenotype is influenced by maternally derived hormones deposited in the yolk. But although the effects of yolk hormones have been studied in great detail, virtually nothing is known about how hormone-mediated maternal effects influence fitness. In order to achieve this, it is highly important to study the effects of yolk hormones on offspring phenotype in different environments. Maternal effects are thought to serve first of all as an adjustment to current environmental conditions, and females alter the amount of yolk hormones deposited in response to environmental changes - via phenotypic plasticity. However, maternal effects have not only an environmental but also a genetic component, and both of which shape the evolutionary significance of a maternal effect. At current, there is still (too) little information available on heritable variation in maternal traits generating changes in offspring phenotype through variation in egg components.

Keywords:MATERNAL EFFECT, EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY

Disciplines:Animal biology, Genetics, Veterinary medicine