Meeting Abstract

94-1  Saturday, Jan. 6 10:15 – 10:30  How does maternal stress affect offspring oxidative signaling and telomeres in wild North American red squirrels? DANTZER, B.*; WESTRICK, S.E.; MONAGHAN, P.; BOUTIN, S.; HUMPHRIES, M.M.; LANE, J.E.; MCADAM, A.G.; VAN KESTEREN, F.; University of Michigan; University of Michigan; University of Glasgow; University of Alberta; McGill University; University of Saskatchewan; University of Guelph; University of Michigan dantzer@umich.edu https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/dantzerlab/

Ecological factors such as intraspecific competition, predation risk, food availability can induce variation in maternal stress hormone levels. These changes in maternal stress hormones may induce adaptive stress-mediated maternal effects on offspring characteristics that increase the ability of offspring to survive in stressful or anticipated environments. Alternatively, the benefits of stress-mediated maternal effects may attenuate as offspring age and/or the environment changes. We examined how experimental increases in maternal stress hormones in North American red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) in the Yukon, Canada affected offspring postnatal growth and oxidative signaling. We treated pregnant females with exogenous glucocorticoids or a control treatment and identified their effects on the following in their offspring: a) growth, b) antioxidants (TAC and SOD) and c) oxidative damage (protein carbonyls) in the blood, liver, and heart, and d) telomere lengths in the liver. We present the results from this three-year field experiment and describe whether stress-mediated maternal effects in red squirrels have beneficial effects on offspring growth early in life but carry costs on their rate of physiological senescence and lifespan.