Metabolic programming mediated by an essential fatty acid alters body composition and survival skills of a marine fish

Metabolic programming occurs when variations in nutrition during a specific developmental window result in long-term metabolic effects. It has been studied almost exclusively in humans and other mammals but never in an ecological context. Here, we report metabolic programming and its functional consequences in a marine fish, red drum. We demonstrate that maternal provisioning of eggs with an essential fatty acid, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), varies with DHA content of the maternal diet. When offspring are reared on a DHA-replete diet, whole-body DHA content of offspring depends upon the amount of DHA that was in the egg. We further demonstrate that whole-body DHA content is correlated with traits related to offspring fitness (escape responses, routine swimming, growth, and survival). DHA content of red drum eggs produced in nature is in the range where the effects of metabolic programming are most pronounced. Our findings indicate that during a brief developmental window DHA plays a role ...

代谢程序化（metabolic programming）指特定发育窗口内的营养状态波动引发长期代谢效应的现象。此前该领域的研究几乎仅局限于人类与其他哺乳动物，从未在生态学语境下开展相关探索。本研究以海洋鱼类红鼓鱼为研究对象，报道了其体内的代谢程序化现象及其功能后果。我们证实，母体可将日粮中的必需脂肪酸二十二碳六烯酸（docosahexaenoic acid, DHA）储备至卵子中，且该储备量随母体日粮的DHA含量动态变化。当子代在DHA充足的日粮环境中饲养时，其全身DHA含量取决于卵子初始储存的DHA总量。本研究进一步发现，子代全身DHA含量与其适合度相关性状（逃逸反应、日常游泳能力、生长及存活率）显著相关。野外环境中产出的红鼓鱼卵子的DHA含量，正处于代谢程序化效应最为显著的区间内。本研究结果表明，在短暂的发育窗口内，DHA发挥着重要作用……