Maternal and paternal nutrition in a mosquito influences offspring life histories but not infection with an arbovirus

The nutritional ecology of an organism can influence the phenotypes of its offspring, generating maternal effects (when derived from mothers) and paternal effects (when derived from fathers). Given the importance of larval nutrition in influencing adult life histories and vector competence in Aedes aegypti, we considered how maternal and paternal nutrition influences offspring. Parental generation females and males were reared on either high or low larval food and mated in four sex-by-parental diet crosses. Offspring traits measured included development time, survivorship, female size, susceptibility to infection with dengue virus, viral titer, and viral dissemination. We found evidence for both maternal and paternal effects on life history traits (with female development time contributing most to this effect), but not viral traits. These results were only evident when mothers mated with high larval food fathers and when fathers mated with high larval food mothers. Offspring from dissimilar nutrient condition parents developed more quickly than offspring from other parental crosses. Overall, results suggest that parental effects in Ae. aegypti are conditionally derived from both the maternal and paternal environment.