![]() Further, the underlying molecular processes have been identified in a just a few studies. Thus, a better understanding of the specific role of paternal effects in transgenerational plasticity is needed, especially considering environmental specific information is likely transferred via sperm (see below). Studies have tended to focus on maternal transgenerational plasticity, or have exposed both parents to the environmental perturbation, making it impossible to disentangle the relative roles of mothers and fathers in altering offspring phenotype. Through this transgenerational plasticity (also known as transgenerational acclimation ), parents may provide offspring with increased tolerance to environmental perturbations, such as contaminants, food shortages, carbon dioxide, hypoxia, salinity, and temperature. These studies suggest that parents can transmit information that may benefit offspring survival. Work on mice has demonstrated that learned fear responses and metabolic alterations associated with undernourishment can be inherited via sperm. Non-genetically transmitted phenotypes can be generated by diverse environmental effects, affecting a wide array of offspring traits, some positively and others negatively. Paradigm-shifting research has revealed that the life-history experiences of parents can influence the phenotype of their offspring through non-genetic mechanisms. Overall, our findings suggest that an epigenetic 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. We did not detect differential methylation at any of the differentially expressed genes, suggesting that other epigenetic mechanisms are responsible for alterations in gene expression. Moreover, the offspring which maintained equilibrium the longest showed greatest upregulation in hemoglobin expression. We detected two hemoglobin genes that are significantly upregulated by more than 6-fold in the offspring of hypoxia exposed males. We show that short-term paternal exposure to hypoxia endows offspring with greater tolerance to acute hypoxia. Using tolerance assays and transcriptomic and methylome approaches, we use zebrafish as a model to investigate cross-generational acclimation to hypoxia. ![]() In a time of rapid environmental change, understanding how the challenges experienced by one generation can influence the fitness of future generations is critically needed. ![]()
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