Oxidative Stress Experienced during Early Development Influences the Offspring Phenotype

Abstract

Oxidative stress (OS) experienced early in life can affect an individual's phenotype. However, its consequences for the next generation remain largely unexplored. We manipulated the OS level endured by zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) during their development by transitorily inhibiting the synthesis of the key antioxidant glutathione ('early-high-OS'). The offspring of these birds and control parents were cross-fostered at hatching to enlarge or reduce its brood size.Independently of parents' early-life OS levels, the chicks raised in enlarged broods showed lower erythrocyte glutathione levels, revealing glutathione sensitivity to environmental conditions. Control ("early-low-OS") biological mothers produced females, not males, that attained a higher body mass when raised in a benign environment (i.e. the reduced brood). In contrast, biological mothers exposed to early-life OS produced heavier males, not females, when allocated in reduced broods. Early-life OS also affected the parental rearing capacity because 12d-old nestlings raised by a foster pair with both early-high-OS members grew shorter legs (tarsus) than chicks from other groups. The results indicate that environmental conditions during development can affect early glutathione levels, which may, in turn, influence the next generation through both pre-and postnatal parental effects. The results also demonstrate that early-life OS can constrain the offspring phenotype.

Paternal care effects outweigh gamete-mediated and personal environment effects during the transgenerational estimation of risk in fathead minnows

“…2 a and 3 a), suggesting the presence of sex-specific transgenerational plasticity [ 21 ]. The general direction of paternal effects mostly outweighing maternal effects contrasts other studies across taxa suggesting that usually maternal effects outweigh paternal effects [snails: 75 , birds: 76 , fish: 77 ]. Our observation is still in accordance with many studies highlighting the relevance of paternal effects [ 78 , 79 ], and a recent meta-analysis suggesting that paternal effect sizes are on average larger than maternal ones [ 61 ].…”

New Perspectives on Avian Models for Studies of Basic Aging Processes

“…Much of this lack of consistency is likely due to poor standardization of assays among laboratories or an inability to account for numerous confounding factors, such as interspecific variation in blood protein composition (but see [93]). On the other hand, the antioxidant properties of erythrocytes may be a useful, if limited, indicator of early life events and interventions [49,109,110].…”

Spatiotemporal Small Non-coding RNAs Expressed in the Germline as an Early Biomarker of Testicular Toxicity and Transgenerational Effects Caused by Prenatal Exposure to Nanosized Particles

“…Chronic inflammation could also be a potential mechanism of indirect toxicity, since it is a candidate mechanism of several disorders in adults (Khansari et al, 2009 ). Maternal inflammation caused by ROS could interfere as well with fetal development and affect the offspring later in life (Romero-Haro and Alonso-Alvarez, 2020 ). In fact, in a study by Sager and Castranova ( 2009 ) conducted on rats, pulmonary exposure to small-sized NMs induced a systemic inflammatory event that was generally more pronounced than that elicited by large-sized NMs (Sager and Castranova, 2009 ).…”