There is no doubt that our parents play a big and important role in our lives and the kind of people we become. And a new study from Monash University in Melbourne has revealed that men pass on more than just genetics to their children. As a matter of fact, a father’s diet can affect the ability of their son to ‘win’ against another sperm after mating.
The study which was published in the Biology Letters journal tested fruit flies due to their similarity to the human genes.
Dr Suzanne Zajitschek, lead author of the study, revealed that male fruit flies that were raised on either low or high protein diets, but spent their adulthood on an intermediate diet, have produced sons that had large differences in gene expression, which most likely affected the resulting differences in sperm competitiveness."
There is a difference on the ability of male fruit flies to sire offspring, where high-protein fathers can produce sons who can do much better in sperm competition. It means that there is a high likelihood that their sperm can win against another competitor’s sperm inside the female tract.
She also revealed that the reproductive and metabolic processes in sons of high-protein fathers were increased while the immune response genes among sons of low-protein fathers were less active.
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