Offspring hormones reflect the maternal prenatal social environment: potential for foetal programming?
Meise K, von Engelhardt N, Forcada J, Hoffman J. Offspring hormones reflect the maternal prenatal social environment: potential for foetal programming? Plos One . 2016;11(1): e0145352. Females of many species adaptively program their offspring to predictable environmental conditions, a process that...
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ftubbiepub:oai:pub.uni-bielefeld.de:2901312 2023-05-15T13:40:40+02:00 Offspring hormones reflect the maternal prenatal social environment: potential for foetal programming? Meise, Kristine von Engelhardt, Nikolaus Forcada, Jaume Hoffman, Joseph 2016 https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0070-pub-29013128 https://pub.uni-bielefeld.de/record/2901312 https://pub.uni-bielefeld.de/download/2901312/2906009 eng eng Public Library Science info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0145352 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1932-6203 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/000368033100013 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/26761814 https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0070-pub-29013128 https://pub.uni-bielefeld.de/record/2901312 https://pub.uni-bielefeld.de/download/2901312/2906009 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess CC-BY ddc:590 http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 info:eu-repo/semantics/article doc-type:article text 2016 ftubbiepub https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0145352 2022-02-08T22:36:17Z Meise K, von Engelhardt N, Forcada J, Hoffman J. Offspring hormones reflect the maternal prenatal social environment: potential for foetal programming? Plos One . 2016;11(1): e0145352. Females of many species adaptively program their offspring to predictable environmental conditions, a process that is often mediated by hormones. Laboratory studies have shown, for instance, that social density affects levels of maternal cortisol and testosterone, leading to fitness-relevant changes in offspring physiology and behaviour. However, the effects of social density remain poorly understood in natural populations due to the difficulty of disentangling confounding influences such as climatic variation and food availability. Colonially breeding marine mammals offer a unique opportunity to study maternal effects in response to variable colony densities under similar ecological conditions. We therefore quantified maternal and offspring hormone levels in 84 Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) from two closely neighbouring colonies of contrasting density. Hair samples were used as they integrate hormone levels over several weeks or months and therefore represent in utero conditions during foetal development. We found significantly higher levels of cortisol and testosterone (both P < 0.001) in mothers from the high density colony, reflecting a more stressful and competitive environment. In addition, offspring testosterone showed a significant positive correlation with maternal cortisol (P < 0.05). Although further work is needed to elucidate the potential consequences for offspring fitness, these findings raise the intriguing possibility that adaptive foetal programming might occur in fur seals in response to the maternal social environment. They also lend support to the idea that hormonally mediated maternal effects may depend more strongly on the maternal regulation of androgen rather than cortisol levels. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Fur Seals Arctocephalus gazella PUB - Publications at Bielefeld University Antarctic PLOS ONE 11 1 e0145352 |
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English |
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ddc:590 Meise, Kristine von Engelhardt, Nikolaus Forcada, Jaume Hoffman, Joseph Offspring hormones reflect the maternal prenatal social environment: potential for foetal programming? |
topic_facet |
ddc:590 |
description |
Meise K, von Engelhardt N, Forcada J, Hoffman J. Offspring hormones reflect the maternal prenatal social environment: potential for foetal programming? Plos One . 2016;11(1): e0145352. Females of many species adaptively program their offspring to predictable environmental conditions, a process that is often mediated by hormones. Laboratory studies have shown, for instance, that social density affects levels of maternal cortisol and testosterone, leading to fitness-relevant changes in offspring physiology and behaviour. However, the effects of social density remain poorly understood in natural populations due to the difficulty of disentangling confounding influences such as climatic variation and food availability. Colonially breeding marine mammals offer a unique opportunity to study maternal effects in response to variable colony densities under similar ecological conditions. We therefore quantified maternal and offspring hormone levels in 84 Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) from two closely neighbouring colonies of contrasting density. Hair samples were used as they integrate hormone levels over several weeks or months and therefore represent in utero conditions during foetal development. We found significantly higher levels of cortisol and testosterone (both P < 0.001) in mothers from the high density colony, reflecting a more stressful and competitive environment. In addition, offspring testosterone showed a significant positive correlation with maternal cortisol (P < 0.05). Although further work is needed to elucidate the potential consequences for offspring fitness, these findings raise the intriguing possibility that adaptive foetal programming might occur in fur seals in response to the maternal social environment. They also lend support to the idea that hormonally mediated maternal effects may depend more strongly on the maternal regulation of androgen rather than cortisol levels. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Meise, Kristine von Engelhardt, Nikolaus Forcada, Jaume Hoffman, Joseph |
author_facet |
Meise, Kristine von Engelhardt, Nikolaus Forcada, Jaume Hoffman, Joseph |
author_sort |
Meise, Kristine |
title |
Offspring hormones reflect the maternal prenatal social environment: potential for foetal programming? |
title_short |
Offspring hormones reflect the maternal prenatal social environment: potential for foetal programming? |
title_full |
Offspring hormones reflect the maternal prenatal social environment: potential for foetal programming? |
title_fullStr |
Offspring hormones reflect the maternal prenatal social environment: potential for foetal programming? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Offspring hormones reflect the maternal prenatal social environment: potential for foetal programming? |
title_sort |
offspring hormones reflect the maternal prenatal social environment: potential for foetal programming? |
publisher |
Public Library Science |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0070-pub-29013128 https://pub.uni-bielefeld.de/record/2901312 https://pub.uni-bielefeld.de/download/2901312/2906009 |
geographic |
Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Fur Seals Arctocephalus gazella |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Fur Seals Arctocephalus gazella |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0145352 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1932-6203 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/000368033100013 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/26761814 https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0070-pub-29013128 https://pub.uni-bielefeld.de/record/2901312 https://pub.uni-bielefeld.de/download/2901312/2906009 |
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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0145352 |
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PLOS ONE |
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11 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
e0145352 |
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1766138327685136384 |