April 18 with Elaine Ritter
Presented by Elaine Ritter
Graduate Student- Michelle Southard-Smith Lab
Maternal tract factors contribute to paternal seminal fluid impact on metabolic phenotype in offspring.
Bromfield et al. – 2014 PNAS; 111(6) pages 2200-2205 http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/01/23/1305609111 
Epigenetics and imprinting have garnered substantial public interest over the last decade, centered for example on the “Lamarckian” idea that environmental and personal choices affect our children and grandchildren. While many effects are attributed to the mother, the input from paternal epigenetic regulators still eludes us. In this paper, paternal seminal fluid was shown to affect not just implantation environment and fecundity, but also the expression of embryotrophic factors regulating embryonic and placental development. Surprisingly, there was a large effect on the offspring’s metabolic phenotype (postnatal growth, fat metabolism, glucose clearance, blood pressure). This paper lends itself to discussion of the ethics of in vitro fertilization, and ways in which the quality of paternal seminal fluid contributes to obesity.