What is a paternal effect?

 

Posted by Jessica Abbott

Sorry for the late posting, but we forgot to talk about who would host the next group meeting at last week's meeting. However I've picked a fairly short paper, so hopefully people will have time to read it anyway. I thought it would be fun to discuss Crean & Bonduriansky's recent TREE paper, "What is a paternal effect?". In the paper, they argue that we have to distinguish between true paternal effects, and indirect paternal effects mediated by female plasticity.

What is a paternal effect?
Angela J. Crean, Russell Bonduriansky
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2014.07.009

Abstract: Maternal effects are now universally recognised as a form of nongenetic parental influence on offspring but, until recently, paternal effects were regarded as an anomaly. Although it is now clear that paternal effects are both widespread and important, their proximate basis and evolutionary consequences have received little attention and remain poorly understood. In particular, because many paternal effects are mediated by maternal responses such as differential allocation, the boundary between paternal and maternal effects is sometimes blurred. We distinguish here three basic types of paternal effect and clarify the role of maternal responses in these effects. We also outline key questions that can serve as a road map for research on the proximate basis and evolutionary implications of paternal effects.