*NERC E3* Transgenerational effects of maternal age: implications at the individual and population level.

Interested individuals must follow the "how to apply" link on the Geosciences E3 Doctoral Training Partnership web page: http://e3dtp.geos.ed.ac.uk/apply.html
In many animal species, including humans, reproducing at a later age is thought to correlate with increased risks for both mother and offspring. These risks are generally thought to be due to the senescence of parents; as individuals get older they may suffer from a number of different processes associated with aging which then impact on their offspring. As parents get older, the physiological costs and benefits of allocating resources to their offspring can also change and plasticity in such traits may drive or compensate for the ageing process. A full understanding of how these different parental age effects operate is important not only for those interested in offspring health and fitness but for our understanding of the ageing process. We are examining how maternal age impacts on both offspring lifespan and their reproductive performance and how these mechanisms vary for both sons and daughters.

This project will test a range of ideas using the bruchid beetle Callosbruchus maculatus, a stored product pest. As a pest species we obviously want to understand what factors influence the number of offspring it produces but it is also an ideal model system to ask a range of questions relating to maternal investment and parental age; it’s easy to generate offspring from mothers of different age and lifespan, they are born with the nutrition they need throughout life but can be food supplemented allowing straightforward exploration of dietary and resource availability, they are easily observed at all lifestages, techniques exist to measure different aspects of their mating success and ultimately, a range of techniques are available to measure lifetime fitness across generations.

We have found that maternal age affects a number of traits independently in both sons and daughters (Thomas, Rogers, Colegrave and Cunningham in prep). An obvious next step would be to explore how these operate within a family environment and how they relate to biological vs chronological age but we are also open to students pursuing their own related interests within this general field.

Key research questions

How do maternal age effects impact on different family members?

Which type of traits are most likely to be affected by maternal age effects?

How do these impact across generations?

Methodology

The project will involve designing and implementing controlled experiments to untangle maternal age effects from other factors that may influence traits of interest. There is scope to measure the impact of age on a range of life history traits and to break these down into different components depending on the students area of interest eg egg provisioning, ejaculate components, physiological measures. Multi-generation experiments are easily conducted in the proposed system as is the tracking of individuals or populations over time.

Training

A comprehensive training programme will be provided comprising both specialist scientific training and generic transferable and professional skills including experimental design, animal handling and husbandry and lab based skills as well as training in data management and analysis in a range of statistical packages including R.

Requirements

Students need at least an upper 2.1 degree in a related biological subject and in a first class undergraduate degree or MSc in ecology or evolution would be an advantage. All training will be provided but any related experience would be an advantage.

Applicants are encouraged to contact supervisors in the first instance for informal discussions relating to the project. Please email Nick Colegrave ([Email Address Removed]) or Emma Cunningham ([Email Address Removed])