Sex-specific transgenerational effects of diet on offspring life history and physiology

Dietary variation in males and females can shape the expression of offspring life histories and physiology. However, the relative contributions of maternal and paternal dietary variation to phenotypic expression of latter generations are currently unknown. We provided male and female Drosophila melanogaster grandparents with diets differing in sucrose concentration prior to reproduction, and similarly subjected their grandoffspring to the same treatments. We then investigated the phenotypic consequences of this dietary variation among the grandsons and granddaughters. We observed transgenerational effects of dietary sucrose, mediated through the grandmaternal lineage, which mimic the direct effects of sucrose on lifespan, with opposing patterns across sexes; low sucrose increased female, but decreased male, lifespan. Dietary mismatching of grandoffspring-grandparent diets increased lifespan and reproductive success, and moderated triglyceride levels of grandoffspring, providing insights...,
Methods
Study species and generating experimental flies
We sourced flies from Dahomey, a large laboratory population of D. melanogaster, originally sourced in 1970 from Benin West Africa. The flies have been maintained in large population cages, with overlapping generations in the Piper laboratory, Monash University, Australia, since 2017, and prior to that in the Partridge laboratory, University College London(33). Prior to the beginning of the experiment, we collected ~3000 eggs from the cages, and distributed them into 250mL bottles containing 70mL of food. Food comprised 5% sucrose (50 grams sucrose, 100 grams yeast, 10 grams agar per litre) solution with an estimated protein to carbohydrate [P:C] ratio of 1:1.9, and 480.9 kcal per litre (see Supplementary Material Figure S4 for further diet details). Every generation (for seven generations), adult flies eclosing from multiple bottles were admixed prior to redistributing the flies across new bottles. To control for potential source..., , # GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Sex-specific transgenerational effects of diet on offspring life
history and physiology

2. Author Information
A. Principal Investigator Contact Information
Name: Damian Dowling
Institution: Monash University
Email: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

B. Corresponding Author
Name: Tara-Lyn Camilleri
Institution: Monash University and Oxford University
Email: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

## File List: Five CSV files as follows:

* F0_fecundity_data: Egg laying data over a 23 hour period for the female F0 flies
* F2_fecundity_data: Egg laying data over a 23 hour period for the female F2 flies
* Egg_Adult_Viability: The F2 female flies laid egg over a 23 hour period and then adult flies that emerged (F3 gen) were counted for each treatment combination
* F2_longevity_data: Data on how long the flies both male and female F2 lived on the different diets and pa...