Consequences of advanced maternal age on reproductive investment by male offspring

Abstract

Maternal age can have contrasting effects on a variety of offspring fitness traits. While the effects of maternal age on offspring traits that are not sex-specific, such as body size and growth rate, as well as on traits specific to females, have been well researched, traits that are specific to male offspring have been understudied. Across taxa, male reproductive investment is a particularly salient component of fitness, especially when females mate with several males. We tested whether maternal age affects the reproductive traits of their male offspring by comparing the investment made by male field crickets, Teleogryllus oceanicus, from ‘young’ and ‘old’ maternal age treatments. Female T. oceanicus mate with several males, and sperm competition is a fair lottery, so male reproductive investment is important for fitness in this system. After two generations of mating young and old females, we measured the testes mass, spermatophore mold mass, and sperm viability of their male offspring. Despite differences in maternal and grand-maternal age and the demonstrated effects of advanced maternal age on egg number and offspring immunocompetency in this system, the male offspring of young and old females did not differ in reproductive tissues and sperm viability. This study is one of the first to examine the effect of maternal age on fitness-related traits specific to male offspring, and we encourage future research that tests the effects of maternal age on male offspring in other species.