Mother knows best? Costs and benefits of differential maternal hormone allocation in birds

Presently, the role of non-genetic inheritance via maternal effects in shaping phenotypic variation is established beyond a doubt. Studies on the differential allocation of maternal hormones to the offspring are in the forefront of this field and the papers discussed in chapter 1 all date from the last decade only. The data presented in this thesis clearly support the view that maternal hormone allocation emobides a powerful mechanism for the mother to shape phenotypic development (Moore et al. 1998).

In the current study we have tried to further expand the knowledge about the adaptive significance of patterns of maternal hormone allocation by focussing on the short-term, but also the long-term consequences of maternal hormone allocation both in the lab and in the field. In addition we have looked at factors determining between-clutch variation in hormone levels, whether maternal hornomes can be involved in the process of sex determination, and whether incubation time influence yolk hormone levels and thereby is a confounding factor for interpreting yolk levels of hormones.

Zie: Summary.

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