Abstract
Accumulating evidence suggests that early-life diet may program one's health status by causing permanent alternations in specific organs, tissues, or metabolic or homeostatic pathways, and such programming effects may propagate across generations through heritable epigenetic modifications. However, it remains uninvestigated whether postnatal dietary changes may program longevity across generations. To address this question of important biological and public health implications, newly-born flies (F0) were collected and subjected to various post-eclosion dietary manipulations (PDMs) with different protein-carbohydrate (i.e., LP, IP or HP for low-, intermediate- or high-protein) contents or a control diet (CD). Longevity and fecundity analyses were performed with these treated F0 flies and their F1, F2 and F3 offspring, while maintained on CD at all times. The LP and HP PDMs shortened longevity, while the IP PDM extended longevity significantly up to the F3 generation. Furthermore, the LP reduced while the IP PDM increased lifetime fecundity across the F0-F2 generations. Our observations establish the first animal model for studying transgenerational inheritance of nutritional programming of longevity, making it possible to investigate the underlying epigenetic mechanisms and identify gene targets for drug discovery in future studies.
Highlights
Accumulating studies have established a strong link between early-life nutrition and adult health and disease [1,2,3,4,5,6]
For the F2 generation (Figure 1A2–D2), longevity was shortened after the LP post‐eclosion dietary manipulations (PDMs) of the F0 parents for all 4 types of flies, and the median lifespan was decreased by 15–22% (Table 1)
No difference was observed in the F2 generation for the LP, IP, and HP PDMs (P ≥ 0.11), suggesting that transgenerational longevity changes may be independent of mating and reproduction in the females. These analyses indicate that transgenerational inheritance of nutritional programming of longevity may be independent of mating and reproduction for all 3 PDMs, all three PDMs may confound the mating and reproduction behavior of the F0 flies, and the effect appeared to propagate to the F1 generation likely through parental effects
Summary
Accumulating studies have established a strong link between early-life nutrition and adult health and disease [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Maternal and postnatal malnutrition, among other environmental factors, can profoundly influence adult health outcomes and increase the subsequent risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs, including metabolic syndrome, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc.). The World Health Organization has recognized unhealthy diets as one of the leading causes of NCDs and such chronic diseases kill over 38 million people annually [7, 8]. The Organization has further recognized that maternal and child under-nutrition increases the subsequent risk of NCDs, accounts for 11% of the global burden of diseases, and is the underlying cause of 35% of early child death [11, 12]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
