Search bioRxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/bioRxiv

bioRxiv · 10.1101/422063

Paternal knockdown of Dnmt2 increases offspring susceptibility to bacterial infection

Schulz, N. K. E.·Diddens-de Buhr, M. F.·Kurtz, J.
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Intergenerational effects from fathers to offspring are increasingly reported from diverse organisms, but the underlying mechanisms remain speculative. Paternal trans-generational immune priming (TGIP) was demonstrated in the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum: non-infectious bacterial exposure of fathers protects their offspring against an infectious challenge for at least two generations. Epigenetic processes, such as cytosine methylation of nucleic acids, have been proposed to enable transfer of information from fathers to offspring. Here we studied a potential role in TGIP of the Dnmt2 gene (renamed as Trdmt1 in humans), which encodes a highly conserved enzyme that methylates different RNAs, including specific cytosines of a set of tRNAs. Dnmt2 has previously been reported to be involved in intergenerational epigenetic inheritance in mice and protection against viruses in fruit flies. We first studied gene expression and found that Dnmt2 is expressed in various life history stages and tissues of T. castaneum, with high expression in the reproductive organs. RNAi-mediated knockdown of Dnmt2 in fathers was systemic, slowed down offspring larval development and increased mortality of the adult offspring upon bacterial infection. However, these effects were independent of bacterial exposure of the fathers. In conclusion, our results point towards a role of Dnmt2 for paternal effects, while elucidation of the mechanisms behind paternal TGIP needs further studies.

Source connections

Explore related subjects

evolutionary biologyPreprint

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Schulz, N. K. E., Diddens-de Buhr, M. F., Kurtz, J.. 2018-09-20. Paternal knockdown of Dnmt2 increases offspring susceptibility to bacterial infection. https://doi.org/10.1101/422063

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related preprints

bioRxiv2026

Efficient growth factor production stabilizes cooperation in a cellular public goods game

Eukaryotic cells secrete growth factors that facilitate the proliferation and survival of neighboring cells in a coordinated manner essential for tissue development, repair, and homeostasis. However, mutant cells that fail to produce these factors may exploit the benefits provided by neighboring producers, thereby gaining a proliferative advantage that could lead to the extinction of the producer clone. Evolutionary theory predicts that preventing this "tragedy of the commons" requires a fixed spatial structure or other mechanisms that enable cells to interact preferentially with copies of themselves. Contrary to this expectation, we found that, in competition experiments, cells producing the diffusible growth factor interleukin-3 (IL3) resist invasion by non-producing mutant cells even in well-mixed populations, and that non-producers are driven to extinction instead. Using evolutionary game theory, we show that this outcome arises when the cost-to-benefit ratio of growth factor production falls below a critical threshold. We derive this tipping point analytically across the full parameter space of benefit function shape and group size and confirm that IL3 production in our experimental system satisfies this condition with a production cost less than 0.1% of the benefit conferred. These results demonstrate that efficient public good production alone can resolve the tragedy of the commons in populations of cells, and potentially in other biological systems.

evolutionary biology↗
bioRxiv2026

Repeated Transitions in Migratory Behavior Across a Songbird Radiation Are Not Driven by Selection on Shared Variation in Candidate Genes

Understanding the mechanisms facilitating the repeated evolution of traits is a core question in evolutionary biology. While repeated evolution has been observed across many systems, behavioral phenotypes have been less well studied than morphological traits. Migration is a behavioral adaptation to seasonality that has evolved independently in many animals, and repeated gains and losses of migratory behavior have been especially prevalent throughout the diversification of birds. While migratory traits are heritable in many taxa and candidate genes underlying intraspecific variation in migratory behavior have been identified, whether similar genetic changes are responsible for the repeated evolution of migration remains poorly understood. We used a phylogenomic approach to investigate the relationship between variation in candidate genes and migratory propensity across nearly all species in the parulid warbler radiation (n = 101), a group of songbirds in which migratory behavior has been lost and gained multiple times. Comparisons of candidate gene tree topologies to the parulid warbler species tree revealed cases of discordance, though these were explained by differences in the number of phylogenetically informative sites among genes rather than by elevated genetic similarity among species sharing migratory strategies. Testing models of coding sequence evolution identified sites with elevated dN/dS in five candidate genes, suggestive of positive selection; however, variation at these sites showed no clear association with migratory strategy, nor did we detect recurrent selection across lineages where transitions in migratory behavior most likely occurred. Together, these results contradict the hypothesis that selection on shared variation (ancestral polymorphisms or introgressed alleles) facilitated the repeated evolution of migration in this clade.

evolutionary biology↗
bioRxiv2026

Polygenic evolution towards a morning chronotype in modern humans

Chronotype is a behavioural phenotype, and its phenotypic trend is considered to change at higher latitudes. In the current study, we performed a polygenic assessment of chronotype trend using associated single nucleotide polymorphisms identified by a genome wide-association study. We found that the phenotypic trend towards morningness increased drastically during the migration of anatomically modern humans above 20 degrees north. Furthermore, two types of latitudinal selection of morningness alleles contributed to establishing the trend towards the morning chronotype at higher latitudes. We propose that the trend towards morningness is stronger in present-day modern humans living above 20 degrees north than in Neanderthals.

evolutionary biology↗