Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 281, Issue 1785, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.0311
Keywords
parental effects; developmental plasticity; epigenetics; carry-over effects; germline; trans-generational effects
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Funding
- NERC [NE/I025182/1]
- ERC
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/K00400X/1, NE/I025182/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- NERC [NE/I025182/1, NE/K00400X/1] Funding Source: UKRI
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The consequences of early developmental conditions for performance in later life are now subjected to convergent interest from many different biological sub-disciplines. However, striking data, largely from the biomedical literature, show that environmental effects experienced even before conception can be transmissible to subsequent generations. Here, we review the growing evidence from natural systems for these cross-generational effects of early life conditions, showing that they can be generated by diverse environmental stressors, affect offspring in many ways and can be transmitted directly or indirectly by both parental lines for several generations. In doing so, we emphasize why early life might be so sensitive to the transmission of environmentally induced effects across generations. We also summarize recent theoretical advancements within the field of developmental plasticity, and discuss how parents might assemble different 'internal' and 'external' cues, even from the earliest stages of life, to instruct their investment decisions in offspring. In doing so, we provide a preliminary framework within the context of adaptive plasticity for understanding inter-generational phenomena that arise from early life conditions.
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