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- Title
Social Instability in Laying Quail: Consequences on Yolk Steroids and Offspring's Phenotype.
- Authors
Guibert, Floriane; Richard-Yris, Marie-Annick; Lumineau, Sophie; Kotrschal, Kurt; Guémené, Daniel; Bertin, Aline; Möstl, Erich; Houdelier, Cécilia
- Abstract
Individual phenotypic characteristics of many species are influenced by non-genetic maternal effects. Female birds can influence the development of their offspring before birth via the yolk steroid content of their eggs. We investigated this prenatal maternal effect by analysing the influence of laying females' social environment on their eggs' hormonal content and on their offspring's development. Social instability was applied to groups of laying Japanese quail females. We evaluated the impact of this procedure on laying females, on yolk steroid levels and on the general development of chicks. Agonistic interactions were more frequent between females kept in an unstable social environment (unstable females) than between females kept in a stable social environment (stable females). Testosterone concentrations were higher in unstable females' eggs than in those of stable females. Unstable females' chicks hatched later and developed more slowly during their first weeks of life than those of stable females. The emotional reactivity of unstable females' chicks was higher than that of stable females' chicks. In conclusion, our study showed that social instability applied to laying females affected, in a non-genetic way, their offspring's development, thus stressing the fact that females' living conditions during laying can have transgenerational effects.
- Subjects
QUAILS; PHENOTYPES; SOCIAL context; EGG quality; TESTOSTERONE; CHICKS
- Publication
PLoS ONE, 2010, Vol 5, Issue 11, p1
- ISSN
1932-6203
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0014069