Meeting Abstract
The maternal environment during gestation can have profound impacts on the phenotype of offspring via transgenerational maternal effects. Transgenerational effects of maternal exposure to environmental stressors have been assumed to be negative. However, more recent work integrating the effects of maternal stress in an ecological framework suggests that maternal stress could benefit offspring if its outcomes better adapt them to life in a stressful environment. In this study we experimentally test the “Environmental Matching” hypothesis in eastern fence lizards (Sceloporus undulatus). We subjected gravid female lizards to a chronic low-level stress treatment until laying (topical application of a low-concentration dose of corticosterone, a glucocorticoid hormone produced in response to stressors). This treatment was designed to emulate the physiological effects of a single daily fire-ant attack, an ecologically relevant low-level environmental stressor. Hatchlings produced by these females were then raised in enclosures either with fire ants present or excluded to provide a test of whether maternal stress resulted in offspring better-adapted to stressful environments. Despite effects on offspring phenotype, maternal stress treatment did not influence hatchling survival irrespective of their environment, providing no evidence for the Environmental Matching hypothesis. However, differences in dispersive behavior and habitat use could indicate alternative routes through which maternal stress could influence wild populations. This study suggests that the phenotypic effects of maternal stress, mediated by glucocorticoids, may not translate to differences in fitness-related traits, and that more studies investigating maternal stress in ecological and evolutionary frameworks should quantify effects of phenotypic differences on fitness-related traits.
