A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Intra- and trans-generational phenotypic responses of the greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella, to a low-nutrition larval diet




AuthorsKatariina Kangassalo, Jouni Sorvari, Ilkka Nousiainen, Mari Pölkki, Terhi M. Valtonen, Indrikis Krams, Markus J. Rantala

PublisherFINNISH ZOOLOGICAL BOTANICAL PUBLISHING BOARD

Publication year2020

JournalAnnales Zoologici Fennici

Journal name in sourceANNALES ZOOLOGICI FENNICI

Journal acronymANN ZOOL FENN

Volume57

Issue1-6

First page 99

Last page114

Number of pages16

ISSN0003-455X

eISSN1797-2450

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5735/086.057.0111


Abstract
We investigated the intra- and trans-generational effects of larval diet on immune function, body size and development time of the greater wax moth, Galleria inellonella (Lepidoptera : Pyralidae). We found that moths reared on a diet diluted with cellulose (a low-nutrition diet) were about one-third smaller, had about one-fifth longer development time and exhibited about 10% stronger encapsulation responses as compared with moths reared on the standard diet. The low-nutrition parental diet prolonged the development time of male offspring that were fed the low-nutrition diet by about 4% and the development time of female offspring that were fed the standard diet by about 1%. However. females that were fed the low-nutrition diet attained about 6% greater body mass when their parents were reared on the low-nutrition diet. Our results add to the growing number of studies demonstrating that the nutritional history of parents can affect the performance of their offspring.



Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 17:31