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 into the physiological underpinnings of the complex
transgenerational effects on life histories.