Study In Flies Suggests That Father's Diet Influences Offspring's Ability To Reproduce

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A recent study by researchers at Monash University has debunked the argument that males just pass on genetic material and not much else to their children. The new study found that a father's diet can have a great influence his son's ability to out-compete a rival's sperm after mating.

The researchers involved in the study were motivated by the argument that a father's nutritional history could have a significant effect on his son. To better understand this argument, they conducted an experiment on the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) that is known to share many similar pathways and characteristics with human genes.

The current study highlighted the importance of paternal environment and diet on the future generations, so many years before babies are even born, senior author of the study, Dr Susanne Zajitschek of the School of Biological Sciences said. "Our study found that males that were raised on either high or low protein diets, but spent their adulthood on an intermediate diet, produced sons that had large differences in gene expression, which most likely contributed to the resulting differences in sperm competitiveness," she added.

According to Medical Webtimes, she continued to say that they are different in their ability to sire babies, as fathers with higher-protein dads producing sons who were doing much better in sperm competition. This invariably means that their sperm is more likely to win against a competitor's sperm within a woman's reproductive tract.

The researchers also found less active immune response genes in sons who have low-protein fathers, but found that the metabolic and reproductive processes were higher in sons who have high-protein fathers. According to Science Daily, the study is one of the few studies that have reported trans-generational effects with regards to the quality of diet.

It is also reported that it is one of the first to make findings on the post-copulatory advantages gotten from diet of parent. Other researchers who took part in the study are researchers at Monash University, the Spanish-based Donana Biological Station and George Washington University.

The study examined the influence of high- and low-protein paternal larval diet on post-copulatory sexual selection and gene expression in the sons of fruit flies. The researchers published their findings in Biology Letters.