GSE62668
Paternal diet defines offspring chromatin state and intergenerational obesity.
The global rise in obesity has revitalized a search to understand genetic, and in particular, epigenetic factors underlying the disease. We present a Drosophila model of paternal-diet-induced Inter-Generational Metabolic Reprogramming (IGMR) and identify genes required for its encoding in offspring. Intriguingly, we find that as little as two days of dietary intervention in fathers elicits obesity in offspring. Paternal sugar acts as a physiological suppressor of variegation, de-silencing chromatin state-defined transcriptional units in both mature sperm and in offspring embryos. We identify requirements for H3K9/K27me3 dependent reprogramming of metabolic genes in two distinct germline and zygotic windows. Critically, we find evidence that a similar system regulates obesity-susceptibility and phenotype variation in mice and humans. The findings provide insight into the mechanisms underlying intergenerational metabolic reprogramming and carry profound implications for our understanding of phenotypic variation and evolution. Overall design: RNA-seq on Drosophila embryos and sperm samples fed medium and high sugar.