Epigenetically heritable alteration of fly development in response to toxic challenge
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): Drosophila melanogaster
PROVIDER: GSE36486 | GEO | 2012/05/01
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA156707
REPOSITORIES: GEO
Similar Datasets
Project description:Developing organisms have evolved a wide range of mechanisms for coping with recurrent environmental challenges. How they cope with rare or unforeseen challenges is, however, unclear as are the implications to their unchallenged offspring. Here we investigate these questions by confronting the development of the fly, D. melanogaster, with artificial tissue distributions of toxic stress that are not expected to occur during fly development. We show that under a wide range of toxic scenarios, this challenge can lead to modified development which may coincide with increased tolerance to an otherwise lethal condition. Part of this response was mediated by suppression of Polycomb group genes, which in turn leads to de-repression of developmental regulators and their expression in new domains. Importantly, some of the developmental alterations were epigenetically inherited by subsequent generations of unchallenged offspring. These results show that the environment can induce alternative patterns of development that are stable across multiple generations. Measuring differences in RNA levels between larvae that were exposed to a toxic challenge and unchallenged larvae. measuring differences in RNA levels between F3 larvae with or without past exposure to the challenge in F1 generation.
2012-04-30 | E-GEOD-36486 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Understanding the genetic basis of adaptation to novel environments remains one of the major challenges confronting evolutionary biologists. While newly developed genomic approaches hold considerable promise for addressing this overall question, the relevant tools have not often been available in the most ecologically interesting organisms. Our study organism, Drosophila mojavensis, is a cactophilic Sonoran Desert endemic utilizing four different cactus hosts across its geographic range. Its well-known ecology makes it an attractive system in which to study the evolution of gene expression during adaptation. As a cactophile, D. mojavensis oviposits in the necrotic tissues of cacti, therefore exposing larvae and even adults to the varied and toxic compounds of rotting cacti. We have developed a cDNA microarray of D. mojavensis to examine gene expression associated with cactus host use. Using a population from the Baja California population we examined gene expression differences of third instar larvae when reared in two chemically distinct cactus hosts, agria (Stenocereus gummosus, native host) vs. organpipe (S. thurberi, alternative host). We have observed differential gene expression associated with cactus host use in genes involved in metabolism and detoxification. The experiment was composed of 5 sets of dye-flips (rep1-5). Larvae were reared in either necrotic agria or organpipe cactus tissues. They were then collected at the third instar stage and its total RNA extracted.
2010-07-01 | E-GEOD-5148 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Although it is increasingly accepted that some paternal environmental conditions can influence phenotypes in future generations, it remains unclear whether phenotypes induced in offspring represent specific responses to particular aspects of the paternal exposure history, or whether they represent a more generic response to paternal “quality of life”. To establish a paternal effect model based on a specific ligand-receptor interaction and thereby enable pharmacological interrogation of the offspring phenotype, we explored the effects of paternal nicotine administration on offspring phenotype in mouse. We show that paternal exposure to chronic nicotine induced a broad protective response to xenobiotic exposure in the next generation. This effect manifested as increased survival following an injection of toxic levels of nicotine, was specific to male offspring, and was only observed after these offspring were first acclimated to low levels of nicotine for a week. Importantly, offspring xenobiotic resistance was documented not only for toxic nicotine challenge, but also for toxic cocaine challenge, indicating that paternal nicotine exposure reprograms offspring to become broadly resistant to environmental toxins. Mechanistically, the reprogrammed state was characterized by enhanced clearance of nicotine in drug-acclimated animals, and we found that isolated hepatocytes displayed upregulation of enzymes that metabolize xenobiotics. Taken together, our data show that paternal nicotine exposure induces a protective phenotype in offspring by enhancing metabolic tolerance to xenobiotics in the environment.
2017-02-02 | GSE92240 | GEO
Project description:We used microarrays to investigate the transcriptome of male flies exposed to either a rich or a poor nutrient environment during development. Further we investigated transcriptome of their offspring and grand-offspring also developed at poor or rich diet. The ability of organisms to cope with poor quality nutrition is essential for their persistence. For species with 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 potential adaptive generational effects, including those of diet quality, is still very limited. Here we use the vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster, to investigate if 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 at low quality diets produced offspring, which at similarly low-quality diets had both increased egg-to-adult viability and starvation tolerance compared to females experiencing a nutrient rich diet in the previous generation. When testing the persistence of such generational priming, we found that just one generation of high-quality diet is sufficient to return performance to initial levels. A global transcriptomic profile analysis suggests that the observed phenotypic priming is not a constitutive transcriptomic adjustment, instead offspring appear primed to initiate an adaptive response only when exposed to low quality diets. Our results show that generational priming is likely an important adaptive mechanism of coping with transient nutritional fluctuations.
2023-07-12 | GSE236807 | GEO
Project description:It would be evolutionarily beneficial if the information of transient stresses experienced by parents could be passed on to descendants as a forecast of the challenges to come. Here, we discovered that neuronal mitochondrial perturbations can transmit the mitochondrial unfolded protein response (UPRmt) to offspring for multiple generations in Caenorhabditis elegans. The transgenerational induction of UPRmt was caused by a higher level of maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which disturbed the balance of oxidative phosphorylation subunits encoded by mtDNA and nuclear DNA. Furthermore, an increase in mtDNA levels requires Wnt/b-catenin signaling to propagate across generations, thereby inducing the UPRmt and conferring increased lifespan and stress tolerance. Thus, transgenerational increase in mtDNA levels and the UPRmt enable offspring to live longer and confer stress tolerance.
2021-06-22 | GSE157031 | GEO
Project description:Parental exposure to environmental stress factors during gestation as well as embryonal developmental may lead to deleterious consequences onto the offspring. In the present study, we assessed the adverse effects and mode of toxic action of chronic exposure to ionizing radiation over 4 generations in Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). Our data show a decrease of 23% in the number of offspring on the first generation F0 and a decrease of more than 40% in subsequent generations F1, F2 and F3 from parental exposure.Transcriptomic analysis revealed modulation of a common set of genes functions betweenthrough generations that included transcription factors, as well as genes involved in stress response, unfolded protein response, lipid metabolism and reproduction. Furthermore, a drastic increase in the number of differentially expressed genes involved in defense response was measured in the last two generations, suggesting a cumulative stress effect of ionizing radiation exposure. Integration of these multi-scale data demonstrates that chronic gamma exposure can impact the germline and induce an increase in defense mechanisms, including apoptosis, antioxidant enzymes, and a modulation of lipid metabolism to improve resistance to stress. Harmful effects intensify over generations, after F0 at the phenotypic level F0 and F1 at the transcriptomic level , emphasizing the importance of studying effects of chronic exposure to pollutants over several generations.
2022-05-01 | GSE175918 | GEO
Project description:Environmental challenges experienced by an organism can have multiple effects at an individual level, with recent work also suggesting these challenges may affect their unexposed offspring. In a time of rapid environmental change, understanding whether environmental challenges experienced by organisms could increase the fitness of future generations to survive these same stressors, is critically needed. Low dissolved oxygen is a common environmental challenge that aquatic organisms encounter, resulting in numerous physiological, phenotypic, and epigenetic changes. In this study, we use zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model to investigate how paternal hypoxia experience impacts subsequent progeny. Males were exposed to moderate hypoxia (11-13 kPA) for 2 weeks, bred to create an F1 generation, and progeny underwent an acute hypoxia (0-1 kPA) tolerance assay. Using time to loss of equilibrium and loss of equilibrium frequency as measured of hypoxia resistance, we show that paternal exposure to hypoxia endow offspring with a greater tolerance to acute hypoxia, compared to offspring of unexposed males, though there are strong family x treatment effects. In addition to phenotypic alternations, we also investigated changes in gene expression in offspring. We conducted RNA-Seq on whole fry and detected 91 differentially expressed genes, including two hemoglobin genes that are significantly upregulated by more than 4-fold in the offspring of hypoxia exposed males. Moreover, the offspring which maintained equilibrium the longest showed the greatest upregulation in hemoglobin expression. Paternal exposures to physiological challenges are thus able to impact the phenotype and gene expression of their unexposed progeny. We conducted whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) on the sperm of parental males to assess whether changes in progeny phenotype and gene expression are underpinned by changes in DNA methylation. While we observed coupling of methylation levels in the parental sperm and gene expression in progeny overall, we did not detect differential methylation at any of the differentially expressed genes, suggesting that another epigenetic mechanism is responsible for the observed changes in gene expression. Overall, our findings suggest that a ‘memory’ of past hypoxia exposure is maintained and that this environmentally induced information is transferred to subsequent generations, pre-acclimating progeny to cope with hypoxic conditions.
2022-01-01 | GSE160662 | GEO
Project description:Epigenetically heritable alteration of fly development in response to toxic challenge
| PRJNA156707 | ENA
Project description:Understanding the genetic basis of adaptation to novel environments remains one of the major challenges confronting evolutionary biologists. While newly developed genomic approaches hold considerable promise for addressing this overall question, the relevant tools have not often been available in the most ecologically interesting organisms. Our study organism, Drosophila mojavensis, is a cactophilic Sonoran Desert endemic utilizing four different cactus hosts across its geographic range. Its well-known ecology makes it an attractive system in which to study the evolution of gene expression during adaptation. As a cactophile, D. mojavensis oviposits in the necrotic tissues of cacti, therefore exposing larvae and even adults to the varied and toxic compounds of rotting cacti. We have developed a cDNA microarray of D. mojavensis to examine gene expression associated with cactus host use. Using a population from the Baja California population we examined gene expression differences of third instar larvae when reared in two chemically distinct cactus hosts, agria (Stenocereus gummosus, native host) vs. organpipe (S. thurberi, alternative host). We have observed differential gene expression associated with cactus host use in genes involved in metabolism and detoxification. Keywords: host adaptation, stress response, detoxification
2007-01-24 | GSE5148 | GEO
Project description:Drosophila larvae were infected with Erwinia bacteria (Ecc15) by introducing concentrated bacterial pellet into the fly medium. The tracheae were dissected 24h later. Three genotypes of larvae were compared: wt (CantonS), RelE20 and PGRP-LA, each present in unchallenged and infected conditions. 3 independent repeats were performed.
2013-06-20 | E-MEXP-3925 | biostudies-arrayexpress