Nutritional stress in larvae induces adaptive responses that transcend generations in males of a model insect.

ABSTRACT: The ability of organisms to cope with poor quality nutrition is essential for their persistence. For species with a short generation time, the nutritional environments can transcend generations, making it beneficial for adults to prime their offspring to particular diets. However, our understanding of adaptive generational responses, including those to diet quality, are still very limited. Here, we used the vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster, to investigate whether females developing as larvae on a nutritionally poor diet produce offspring that are primed for nutrient deficiencies in the following generations. We found that females developed on low-quality diets produced offspring that, on similarly low-quality diets, had both increased egg-to-adult viability and starvation tolerance com

SUBMITTER: Davies LR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11832117 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature