RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Grand paternal inheritance of an acquired metabolic trait induced by ancestral obesity is associated with sperm RNA
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 042101
DO 10.1101/042101
A1 Jennifer E Cropley
A1 Sally A Eaton
A1 Alastair Aiken
A1 Paul E Young
A1 Eleni Giannoulatou
A1 Joshua WK Ho
A1 Michael E Buckland
A1 Simon P Keam
A1 Gyorgy Hutvagner
A1 David T Humphreys
A1 Katherine G Langley
A1 Darren C Henstridge
A1 David IK Martin
A1 Mark A Febbraio
A1 Catherine M Suter
YR 2016
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/03/10/042101.abstract
AB Parental exposure to an environmental challenge can induce phenotypes in offspring independent of the inherited DNA sequence. Whether such acquired traits can be inherited – i.e., can manifest in a generation beyond that exposed to the precipitating insult as germ cells – is unclear. Here we report a latent metabolic phenotype induced by paternal obesity that is inherited into a second generation, without germ cell exposure. Sons of obese male mice exhibit defects in glucose and lipid metabolism that are only unmasked by post-weaning dietary challenge, yet they transmit these defects to their own progeny (F2) in the absence of the challenge. F1 sperm exhibit changes in the abundance of several small RNA species, including diet responsive tRNA-derived fragments. These data suggest that induced metabolic phenotypes may be propagated for multiple generations through the actions of noncoding RNA.