Otero-Ferrer, F., Lättekivi, F., Ord, J. et al. (5 more authors) (2020) Time-critical influences of gestational diet in a seahorse model of male pregnancy. The Journal of Experimental Biology, 223 (3). jeb210302. ISSN 0022-0949
Abstract
Sex role reversal is not uncommon in the animal kingdom but is taken to the extreme by the Syngnathidae, in which male pregnancy is one of the most astonishing idiosyncrasies. However, critical and time-dependent environmental effects on developing embryos, such as those extensively studied in mammalian pregnancy, have not been investigated in the male pregnancy context. Here, we tested the hypothesis that seahorse pregnancy is subject to ‘critical windows’ of environmental sensitivity by feeding male long-snouted seahorses (Hippocampus reidi) a diet deficient in polyunsaturated fatty acids during specific periods before and during pregnancy. Despite embryos being nourished principally by maternally supplied yolk, we found that offspring morphology, fatty acid composition and gene expression profiles were influenced by paternal diet in a manner that depended critically on the timing of manipulation. Specifically, reception of a diet deficient in polyunsaturated fatty acids in the days preceding pregnancy resulted in smaller newborn offspring, while the same diet administered towards the end of pregnancy resulted in substantial alterations to newborn gene expression and elongation of the snout at 10 days old. Although paternal diet did not affect 10 day survival, the observed morphological alterations in some cases could have important fitness consequences in the face of natural selective pressures such as predation and food availability. Our results demonstrate that, under male pregnancy, fine-scale temporal variation in parental diet quality and subsequent critical window effects should not be overlooked as determinants of developing offspring fitness.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed. |
Keywords: | Syngnathidae; Development; Critical windows; Gestation; Paternal effects; Nutrition |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 16 Mar 2020 15:30 |
Last Modified: | 16 Mar 2020 15:30 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | The Company of Biologists |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1242/jeb.210302 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:157429 |