Stickleback F2 generation transgenerational plasticity experiment: egg and body size data

In very early stages of growth, F2 offspring reached larger sizes in their respective paternal and grandparental environment down the paternal line, suggesting that other factors than just the paternal genome may be transferred between generations. In later growth stages, maternal and maternal granddam environments strongly influenced offspring body size, but in opposing directions, indicating that the mechanism(s) underlying the transfer of environmental information may have differed between acute and developmental acclimation experienced by the two generations.

Taken together, our results suggest that the fitness consequences of parental and grandparental TGP are highly context dependent, but will play an important role in mediating some of the impacts of rapid climate change in this system.