Beyond the genetic links between mother and young, prenatal effects experienced by offspring can modulate their mother's behaviour and stress. Here we investigated the consequences of stress-induced prenatal maternal effects on quail chicks' behaviour and maternal behaviour. We evaluated how adoptive quail mothers (unstressed) raised chicks of females that had either been stressed (PS) or were non-stressed (NPS) during laying. We demonstrated previously that our social stress procedure during laying increases levels of egg yolk steroid and chicks' emotional reactivity during the postnatal period. We found that, compared to NPS mothers, PS mothers remained closer to their chicks, were aggressed and neglected them less, emitted more maternal vocalisations and called their chicks more when they were separated. Moreover, PS chicks made more requests on their mother. Our results show that mothers responded to chicks' behavioural changes caused by prenatal stress by adapting their maternal behaviour. As exemplified here, for the first time in birds, prenatal environment can affect postnatal maternal behaviour by changing their offspring's behaviour.

中文翻译：

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来自压力雌性的小鸡在养母鹌鹑中引发过度保护行为

除了母亲和孩子之间的遗传联系之外，后代所经历的产前影响可以调节母亲的行为和压力。在这里，我们调查了压力引起的产前母体对鹌鹑小鸡行为和母体行为的影响。我们评估了收养鹌鹑妈妈（无压力）如何抚养在产蛋期间受到压力 (PS) 或无压力 (NPS) 的雌性小鸡。我们之前已经证明，我们在产蛋期间的社会压力过程会增加蛋黄类固醇的水平和雏鸡在产后期间的情绪反应。我们发现，与 NPS 母亲相比，PS 母亲更接近他们的小鸡，较少受到攻击和忽视，发出更多的母性声音，并且在分开时更多地叫他们的小鸡。而且，PS小鸡对他们的母亲提出了更多要求。我们的研究结果表明，母亲通过调整母亲的行为来应对由产前压力引起的雏鸡行为变化。正如这里所举例说明的，第一次在鸟类中，产前环境可以通过改变后代的行为来影响产后母亲的行为。