Meeting Abstract
The phenotypic impacts of stress and the adaptive potential of these stress-effects are of growing interest to the fields of ecology and biology, particularly in these times of increased environmental perturbations. In addition to mediating the link between environmental variability and organismal plasticity, such as through changes in behavior, glucocorticoids (GCs) are also a mechanistic translator between mothers and their offspring. We tested the hypothesis that GCs will alter maternal behavior, egg physiology, and hatchling behavior. We treated wild caught gravid female eastern fence lizards (Sceloporus undulatus) daily with transdermal applications of GCs at an ecologically relevant dose (approximating a GC response to a fire ant attack) from capture to oviposition. Eggs were collected and incubated until hatching. GC-treated mothers basked less and were more likely to be in the corner of their home bin then control females. Maternal GC-treatment produced eggs that had higher GCs concentrations. Finally, offspring of GC-treated females hid under the basking log more and responded less to tactile stimulation mimicking an ant attack. These findings reveal that elevated GCs while gravid can impact the mothers, eggs, and offspring; changes which may be adaptive to stressors such as visual predators. These data contribute to our knowledge of maternal stress and suggest that maternal GCs can have beneficial impacts on offspring phenotype.
