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Project- Temperature effect on maternal investment and offspring performance in zebrafish.

 

Both maternal and offspring fitness are affected by the amount of resources a mother invests in individual offspring. Maternal fitness is increased with the number of surviving offspring, therefore investment can have huge implications not only for a mother’s fitness but for that of her offspring. Maternal reproductive energy is often strictly limited, hence efficient allocation of this energy into eggs is essential if a mother is to maximise her offspring’s performance. Environmental temperature can affect the optimal size and number of eggs through a variety of indirect and direct mechanisms. Temperature can directly influence development time, hatchling size, growth rate and the juvenile period, as well as indirectly though its effects on egg size. There is a complex web of interactions between temperature, egg size, offspring development and subsequent offspring size and performance. Many studies have investigated the effect of egg size on offspring performance, however only a limited amount of studies utilising an aquatic vertebrate system to test this relationship has occurred. My project intends to investigate the relationship between temperature and maternal investment and the effects on both offspring and maternal fitness in the zebra fish, Danio rerios.

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