Ancestral and offspring nutrition interact to affect life-history traits inDrosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Ancestral environmental conditions can impact descendant phenotypes through a variety of epigenetic mechanisms. Previous studies on transgenerational effects in Drosophila melanogaster suggest that parental nutrition may affect the body size, developmental duration and egg size of the next generation. However, it is unknown whether these effects on phenotype remain stable across generations, or if specific generations have general responses to ancestral diet. In the current study, we examined the effect on multiple life-history phenotypes of changing diet quality across three generations. Our analysis revealed unforeseen patterns in how phenotypes respond to dietary restriction. Our generalized linear model showed that when considering only two generations, offspring phenotypes were primarily affected by their own diet, and to a lesser extent by the diet of their parents or the interaction between the two generations. Surprisingly, however, when considering three generations, offspring phenotypes were primarily impacted by their grandparents' diet and their own diet. Interactions among different generations’ diets affected development time, egg volume and pupal mass more than ovariole number or wing length. Furthermore, pairwise comparisons of diet groups from the same generation revealed commonalities in strong responses to rich versus poor diet: ovariole number, pupal mass and wing length responded more strongly to poor diet than to rich diet, while development time responded strongly to both rich and poor diets. To improve investigations into the mechanisms and consequences of transgenerational, epigenetic inheritance, future studies should closely examine how phenotypes change across a higher number of generations, and consider responses to broader variability in diet treatments.

Trans-generational effect of protein restricted diet on adult body and wing size ofDrosophila melanogaster

“…Since high protein diet did not confer any change in the pupal size of the flies, but high carbohydrate diet resulted in smaller pupa [18], it is surprising to see pupal size difference upon protein restriction. This is in line with the results of Deas et al, [37], that suggests more susceptibility of pupal mass change in poor diet than that of rich nutrient diet, in addition to exhibiting effects of parental and grandparental diet [37]. Overall, our results also show that diet and generation have a differential role of different traits as suggested elsewhere [37].…”

“…This is in line with the results of Deas et al, [37], that suggests more susceptibility of pupal mass change in poor diet than that of rich nutrient diet, in addition to exhibiting effects of parental and grandparental diet [37]. Overall, our results also show that diet and generation have a differential role of different traits as suggested elsewhere [37].…”

C. elegans aversive olfactory learning generates diverse intergenerational effects

“…A longer exposure of 24 h to a pathogenic lawn grown under conditions that enhance bacterial pathogenicity (Moore et al, 2019) probably signals a constant presence of virulence that generates the transmission of aversive information for several generations. Together, these results on parental exposure to pathogenic bacteria are in agreement with observation in other species in which the intergenerational and transgenerational modulations of physiological and behavioral traits are influenced by the components of the diet of previous generations (Deas et al, 2019;€ Ost et al, 2014). rrf-3 mutants are depleted in the 26 G RNA population, which affects endogenous gene expression during spermatogenesis, oogenesis and zygotic development (Gent et al, 2010;Han et al, 2009;Lee et al, 2006).…”

“…This form of plasticity "anticipates" that the next generation will experience a similar environment to their parents, in which case it may prove to be adaptive. However, the same parental experience can affect progeny differentially depending on their sex, genotype, further ancestral history and life experience (Bohacek & Mansuy, 2015;Deas, Blondel, & Extavour, 2019;Kundakovic et al, 2013;Palominos et al, 2017). These observations suggest that inter-and transgenerational regulations are influenced by many different factors and do not always copy the parentally acquired traits.…”

Ancestral dietary change alters development ofDrosophilalarvae through MAPK signalling

“…Faster developmental timing is observed when a high P:C ratio is consumed by larvae (Aw et al, 2018), by only the parental generation (Matzkin et al, 2013) and now in this study, only in the grand-parental generation. A recent study of the effects of an ancestral 'rich' relatively high protein vs 'poor' lower protein diets also observed a faster developmental timing in grand-offspring of the 'rich' diet flies (Deas et al, 2019). Interestingly, they observed a greater influence of grand-parental diet than parental diet on a variety of offspring phenotypes, including larval to pupal developmental timing.…”