近日，澳大利亚莫纳什大学
研究人员结合后代的能量含量（直接成本）和承受后代的代谢负荷（间接成本）的数据，提出了一个估算繁殖总能量成本的框架。研究人员发现，直接成本通常只占繁殖能量消耗的一小部分。
哺乳动物的繁殖成本最高（不包括哺乳期），其中约90%是间接成本。外温动物的总体繁殖成本较低，与产卵动物相比，活产外温动物的间接成本较高。该研究表明，繁殖的能量需求超出了标准假设。
据了解，繁殖包括两种能量投入——后代的能量和制造后代所消耗的能量。前者很好理解，而后者则无法量化，但通常被认为是很小的。如果不了解这两项投入，就无法知道繁殖的真正能量成本。
附：英文原文
Title: Metabolic loads and the costs of metazoan reproduction
Author: Samuel C. Ginther, Hayley Cameron, Craig R. White, Dustin J. Marshall
Issue&Volume: 2024-05-17
Abstract: Reproduction includes two energy investments—the energy in the offspring and the energy expended to make them. The former is well understood, whereas the latter is unquantified but often assumed to be small. Without understanding both investments, the true energy costs of reproduction are unknown. We present a framework for estimating the total energy costs of reproduction by combining data on the energy content of offspring (direct costs) and the metabolic load of bearing them (indirect costs). We find that direct costs typically represent the smaller fraction of the energy expended on reproduction. Mammals pay the highest reproductive costs (excluding lactation), ~90% of which are indirect. Ectotherms expend less on reproduction overall, and live-bearing ectotherms pay higher indirect costs compared with egg-layers. We show that the energy demands of reproduction exceed standard assumptions.
DOI: adk6772
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk6772