Maternal Effects As Adaptations - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019511163X ISBN 13: 9780195111637

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1998

Synopsis

Mothers have the ability to profoundly affect the quality of their offspring--from the size and quality of their eggs to where, when, and how eggs and young are placed, and from providing for and protecting developing young to choosing a mate. In many instances, these maternal effects may be the single most important contributor to variation in offspring fitness. This book explores the wide variety of maternal effects that have evolved in plants and animals as mechanisms of adaptation to temporally and spatially heterogeneous environments. Topics range from the evolutionary implications of maternal effects to the assessment and measurement of maternal effects. Four detailed case studies are also included. This book represents the first synthesis of the current state of knowledge concerning the evolution of maternal effects and their adaptive significance.

About this title

About the Author

Timothy A. Mousseau is at University of South Carolina, Columbia. Charles W. Fox is at Fordham University.

Review

"Its main message is that maternal effects may often have evolved as adaptations for life in heterogeneous environments. The nineteen chapters fall into four groups: theoretical and conceptual issues; assessing and measuring maternal effects; reviews of maternal effects in various taxa...; and specific case studies in four taxa..." --Evolution

"The volume edited by Mousseau & Fox is concerned with maternal adaptations, those mechanisms that mothers employ to enhance the fitness of their offspring; with maternal effects, parents contribute more than genes to the next generation. . . . The volume is organized into four parts: (1) recent theoretical developments; (2) assessment and measurement of maternal effects; (3) reviews of maternal effects across taxa; and (4) case studies of the adaptive significance of maternal effects. . . . [Maternal effects] blur the distinction between genetic and environmental components of phenotypic variation and present a range of challenges from conceptual formulation to experimental design and assessment. But, to paraphrase Feller (1971), challenges are not overcome by ignoring them. This excellent volume will allow us both to face the challenges raised by maternal effects and to overcome these challenges, into an even more advanced understanding of adaptation."--Animal Behaviour

"Occasionally there is a multiauthored book that is inspiring enough to revive the interest of evolutionary biologists in some unduly neglected concept. . . . The present book may do [that] for maternal effects. . . . This book challenges us to expand our view of selection and adaptation to include the cross-generational extended phenotypes of parents expressed in their offspring . . . The authors discuss species in which parents choose oviposition sites, incubate eggs, care for or educate their young, and where eggs contain, in addition to nutrients, hormones, antibodies, mRNA, and photoperiod-induced cues. . . . This volume is a high-quality contribution to the literature on phenotypic plasticity, selection and adaptation, and development as an aspect of natural history and evolution. Perhaps the most important message it contains is clear evidence for the role of environmental factors in structuring development from its earliest inception."--The Quarterly Review of Biology

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 019511163X
• ISBN 13: 9780195111637
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400
• Editor: Mousseau Timothy A., Fox Charles W.