Parenting in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides is complex and, unusually, the sex and number of parents that can be present is flexible. Such flexibility is expected to involve specialized behaviour by the two sexes under biparental conditions. Here, we show that offspring fare equally well regardless of the sex or number of parents present. Comparing transcriptomes, we find a largely overlapping set of differentially expressed genes in both uniparental and biparental females and in uniparental males including vitellogenin, associated with reproduction, and takeout, influencing sex-specific mating and feeding behaviour. Gene expression in biparental males is similar to that in non-caring states. Thus, being ‘biparental’ in N. vespilloides describes the family social organization rather than the number of directly parenting individuals. There was no specialization; instead, in biparental families, direct male parental care appears to be limited with female behaviour unchanged. This should lead to strong sexual conflict.

qPCR data for β-glucosidases in femalesBeta-gluc-Female.xlsqPCR data for β-glucosidases in malesBeta-gluc-Males.xlsqPCR data for peptidoglycan recognition protein in femalesPGRP3-Females.xlsqPCR data for peptidoglycan recognition protein in malesPGRP3-Males.xlsqPCR data for vitellogenin 1 and vitellogenin 2 in males and femalesqRT verification Vg male & females.xlsqPCR data for Serine Protease in femalesSerine_Protease_Females.xlsqPCR data for Serine Protease in malesSerine_Protease_Males.xlsqPCR data for Takeout in femalesTakeout_RNA-seq_validation_Females.xlsqPCR data for Takeout in malesTakeout_RNA-seq_validation_Males.xlsqPCR data for Thaumatin in femalesThaumatin-Females.xlsqPCR data for Thaumatin in malesThaumatin-Males.xls