Viability of Booby Offspring is Maximized by Having One Young Parent and One Old Parent

Drummond H, Rodríguez C (2015) Viability of Booby Offspring is Maximized by Having One Young Parent and One Old Parent (A Widdig, Ed,). PLOS ONE, 10, e0133213.

Abstract
It is widely expected that the quality of offspring will vary with the age of their parents and
that this variation should influence animals’ choice of mates. However, theoretical predictions
for age effects are contradictory and, to our knowledge, we do not know for any wild
animal how the quality of offspring is affected by both parents’ ages across their lifespans,
or whether mothers’ and fathers’ ages interact. We tackled this question using long-term
data on a highly philopatric, insular population of the blue-footed booby (Sula nebouxii). In
this species extra-pair paternity is most common in pairs of two young parents or two old
parents, implying that these age combinations might prejudice offspring quality. Analysis of
the viability of 3,361 offspring of parents up to 21 years old revealed that fledglings with two
young parents or two old parents were least likely to become breeders, whereas fledglings
with one young parent and one old parent were most likely to do so. For young parents of
either sex, offspring viability increased with age of the other parent; for very old parents, it
decreased. These effects could be mediated by parents flexibly modifying their investment
in offspring in response to their own and their partners´ ages, but evidence for this was lacking.
In 5,343 breeding attempts, although mothers’ and fathers’ ages independently affected
four heavily care-dependent breeding traits at the clutch and nestling stages, their interaction
did not affect any trait. The effects of parental age combinations on viability could also
be mediated by genes: fledglings with one young parent and one old parent could benefit
from greater heterozygosity or better genes. 


Seleccionado por: Verónica G

Yo estoy enfocada un poco más en el área de la conducta, por lo que me interesa revisar este artículo ya que es una de las bases de mi proyecto y dado que soy inexperta en el área de molecular y genómica quiero ver si me dan ideas o comentarios
Este artículo habla sobre el efecto en la viabilidad de las crías de pajaros bobos al combinarse las edades parentales.
A mi me interesa saber si el combinar las edades de los padres puede incrementar la Heterocigosis de las crías y si las hembras incurren en
copulas extra pareja para incrementar dicha heterocigosis.
Es un artículo que a mi parecer es bastante interesante aunque no habla tanto de molecular, espero les guste.