TY - JOUR
T1 - Transcriptomes of parents identify parenting strategies and sexual conflict in a subsocial beetle
AU - Parker, Darren J.
AU - Cunningham, Christopher B.
AU - Walling, Craig A.
AU - Stamper, Clare E.
AU - Head, Megan L.
AU - Roy-Zokan, Eileen M.
AU - McKinney, Elizabeth C.
AU - Ritchie, Michael G.
AU - Moore, Allen J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/9/29
Y1 - 2015/9/29
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84942805919&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/ncomms9449
DO - 10.1038/ncomms9449
M3 - Article
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 6
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
M1 - 8449
ER -