Analyzing the Reproductive Benefits of Generational Impacts in Different Animal Settings
Abstract
The significance of generational effects, which refer to the impact of ancestral environmental conditions on the offspring, in adapting to dynamic settings has been the subject of considerable research interest. However, the available empirical data on this matter is inconclusive. This study delves into the complex relationship between effects throughout generations and reproductive results in various animal habitats. Over many generations, we investigate the roles played by genetics, social systems and the environment in determining the fertility rates of different species. To examine the applicability of generational effects across different taxa, characteristics and environmental settings, we performed a meta-analysis that summarized 25 animal experiments with 1000 effect sizes. We observed that transgenerational impacts improved the responsiveness of subsequent generations to pleasant and anxious environmental factors. The purpose of this analysis was to review the research on physiological outcomes in that have been conducted in animals. Apart from environmental settings and taxonomic/life-history categories, transgenerational effects differed between characteristics and developmental phases of progenitors and progeny, however the effects persisted for three generations of progeny. Our findings diverge from a prior analysis by using a larger sample size and a distinct impact size, indicating that transgenerational impacts are robust, ubiquitous as well as long-lasting that can affect when plants and animals adapt to changing environments.
References
Lohmiller, J. J., Swing, S. P., & Hanson, M. M. (2020). Reproduction and breeding. In The laboratory rat (pp. 157-179). Academic Press.https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814338-4.00006-4.
Moore, M. P., Whiteman, H. H., & Martin, R. A. (2019). A mother’s legacy: the strength of maternal effects in animal populations. Ecology Letters, 22(10), 1620-1628.https://doi.org/ 10.1111/ele.13351.
Areb, E., Getachew, T., Kirmani, M. A., & Haile, A. (2021). Estimation of co-variance components, genetic parameters, and genetic trends of reproductive traits in community-based breeding program of Bonga sheep in Ethiopia. Animal Bioscience, 34(9), 1451.https:// doi.org/ 10.5713%2Fajas.20.0413.
Marshall, K., Salmon, G. R., Tebug, S., Juga, J., MacLeod, M., Poole, J., ...&Missohou, A. (2020). Net benefits of smallholder dairy cattle farms in Senegal can be significantly increased through the use of better dairy cattle breeds and improved management practices. Journal of dairy science, 103(9), 8197-8217.https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2019-17334.
Herrick, J. R. (2019). Assisted reproductive technologies for endangered species conservation: developing sophisticated protocols with limited access to animals with unique reproductive mechanisms. Biology of Reproduction, 100(5), 1158-1170.https://doi.org/10.1093/biolre/ioz025.
Cutter, A. D. (2019). Reproductive transitions in plants and animals: selfing syndrome, sexual selection and speciation. New Phytologist, 224(3), 1080-1094.https://doi.org/10.1111/ nph.160 75.
Gebreselassie, G., Berihulay, H., Jiang, L., & Ma, Y. (2019). Review on genomic regions and candidate genes associated with economically important production and reproduction traits in sheep (Oviesaries). Animals, 10(1), 33.https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10010033.
Monk, J. D., Giglio, E., Kamath, A., Lambert, M. R., & McDonough, C. E. (2019). An alternative hypothesis for the evolution of same-sex sexual behaviour in animals. Nature ecology & evolution, 3(12), 1622-1631.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-1019-7.
Shaw, A. K. (2020). Causes and consequences of individual variation in animal movement. Movement ecology, 8(1), 12.https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-020-0197-x.
Zemanova, M. A. (2019). Poor implementation of non-invasive sampling in wildlife genetics studies. Rethinking Ecology, 4, 119-132. https://doi.org/10.3897/rethinkingecology.4.32751.
Liu, J., Kim, Y. S., Richardson, C. E., Tom, A., Ramakrishnan, C., Birey, F., ... &Deisseroth, K. (2020). Genetically targeted chemical assembly of functional materials in living cells, tissues, and animals. Science, 367(6484), 1372-1376.https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aay4866.
Martinez-Guryn, K., Leone, V., & Chang, E. B. (2019). Regional diversity of the gastrointestinal microbiome. Cell host & microbe, 26(3), 314-324.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2019.08.011.
Johnson, A. K. (2022). Normal feline reproduction: the queen. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, 24(3), 204-211.https://doi.org/10.1177/1098612X221079706.
Quintero-Herrera, S., Zwolinski, P., Evrard, D., Cano-Gómez, J. J., & Rivas-García, P. (2023). Turning food loss and waste into animal feed: A Mexican spatial inventory of potential generation of agro-industrial wastes for livestock feed. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 41, 36-48.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2023.07.023.
Hawkes, Kristen. "Cognitive consequences of our grandmothering life history: cultural learning begins in infancy." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 375, no. 1803 (2020): 20190501.https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0501.
Hufana-Duran, D., & Duran, P. G. (2020, April). Animal reproduction strategies for sustainable livestock production in the tropics. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 492, No. 1, p. 012065). IOP Publishing.https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/492/1/012065.
Thongphakdee, A., Sukparangsi, W., Comizzoli, P., &Chatdarong, K. (2020). Reproductive biology and biotechnologies in wild felids. Theriogenology, 150, 360-373.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.theriogenology.2020.02.004.
Sejian, V., Shashank, C. G., Silpa, M. V., Madhusoodan, A. P., Devaraj, C., & Koenig, S. (2022). Non-Invasive Methods of Quantifying Heat Stress Response in Farm Animals with Special Reference to Dairy Cattle. Atmosphere, 13(10), 1642.https://doi.org /10.3390/ atmos1310 1642.
Kastelic, M., GregurićGračner, G., Tomažič, I., Kvapil, P., Harej, M., &Dovč, A. (2023). Comparison of Cortisol Concentrations in Different Matrices in Alpine Ibex (Capra ibex) at the Zoo. Animals, 13(15), 2491. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13152491.
Karaer, M. C., Čebulj-Kadunc, N., &Snoj, T. (2023). Stress in wildlife: comparison of the stress response among domestic, captive, and free-ranging animals. Frontiers in veterinary science, 10, 1167016.https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2023.1167016.
Koren, L., Bryan, H., Matas, D., Tinman, S., Fahlman, Å., Whiteside, D., ... & Wynne‐Edwards, K. (2019). Towards the validation of endogenous steroid testing in wildlife hair. Journal of Applied Ecology, 56(3), 547-561. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13306.
Barbe, A., Bongrani, A., Mellouk, N., Estienne, A., Kurowska, P., Grandhaye, J., ...&Dupont, J. (2019). Mechanisms of adiponectin action in fertility: an overview from gametogenesis to gestation in humans and animal models in normal and pathological conditions. International journal of molecular sciences, 20(7), 1526. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20071526.
Ajuogu, P. K., Al‐Aqbi, M. A., Hart, R. A., McFarlane, J. R., & Smart, N. A. (2021). A low protein maternal diet during gestation has negative effects on male fertility markers in rats–A Systematic Review and Meta‐analysis. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition, 105(1), 157-166. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpn.13411.
Healy, K., Ezard, T. H., Jones, O. R., Salguero-Gómez, R., & Buckley, Y. M. (2019). Animal life history is shaped by the pace of life and the distribution of age-specific mortality and reproduction. Nature ecology & evolution, 3(8), 1217-1224.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0938-7.
Nagashima, J. B., &Songsasen, N. (2021). Canid reproductive biology: norm and unique aspects in strategies and mechanisms. Animals, 11(3), 653.https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11030653.
