Bonzi, L.C., Spinks, R.K., Donelson, J.M., Munday, P.L., Ravasi, T., and Schunter, C. (2024) Timing-specific parental effects of ocean warming in a coral reef fish. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 291. 20232207.

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Abstract

Population and species persistence in a rapidly warming world will be determined by an organism’s ability to acclimate to warmer conditions, especially across generations. There is potential for transgenerational acclimation but the importance of ontogenetic timing in the transmission of environmentally induced parental effects remains mostly unknown. We aimed to disentangle the effects of two critical ontogenetic stages (juvenile development and reproduction) to the new-generation acclimation potential, by exposing the spiny chromis damselfish Acanthochromis polyacanthus to simulated ocean warming across two generations. By using hepatic transcriptomics, we discovered that the post-hatching developmental environment of the offspring themselves had little effect on their acclimation potential at 2.5 months of life. Instead, the developmental experience of parents increased regulatory RNA production and protein synthesis, which could improve the offspring’s response to warming. Conversely, parental reproduction and offspring embryogenesis in warmer water elicited stress response mechanisms in the offspring, with suppression of translation and mitochondrial respiration. Mismatches between parental developmental and reproductive temperatures deeply affected offspring gene expression profiles, and detrimental effects were evident when warming occurred both during parents’ development and reproduction. This study reveals that the previous generation’s developmental temperature contributes substantially to thermal acclimation potential during early life; however, exposure at reproduction as well as prolonged heat stress will likely have adverse effects on the species’ persistence.

Item ID:	85881
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1471-2954
Copyright Information:	© 2024 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
Date Deposited:	18 Jun 2025 00:40
FoR Codes:	31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3105 Genetics > 310509 Genomics @ 33% 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310305 Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology) @ 33% 41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4101 Climate change impacts and adaptation > 410102 Ecological impacts of climate change and ecological adaptation @ 34%
SEO Codes:	19 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, CLIMATE CHANGE AND NATURAL HAZARDS > 1901 Adaptation to climate change > 190102 Ecosystem adaptation to climate change @ 50% 28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280102 Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences @ 50%
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