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Lipid metabolism

A mother to offspring metabolic link

Nature Cell Biology volume 25, pages 1083–1084 (2023)Cite this article

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In many species, a mother’s environment can impact offspring’s metabolism, but the mechanisms that mediate such intergenerational effects are unclear. In this issue, a study finds that the provisioning of a sphingolipid from mothers to offspring drives changes in offspring metabolism that protect against neuronal damage.

The ability of a mother’s environment to drive changes in offspring metabolism and physiology has been noted since at least 1909, when Isabel McCracken observed that overwintering in juvenile silk moths was not inherited in a Mendelian fashion but was instead maternally regulated1. Follow-up studies demonstrated that a mother’s environment (temperature) regulates overwintering in silk moth offspring2 and that it was mediated, at least in part, by altering offspring metabolism2. Despite similar links between a mother’s environment and offspring metabolism being reported in several other species, the molecular mechanisms that link a mother’s environment to changes in offspring metabolism remain largely unknown. In this issue of Nature Cell Biology, Wang et al. demonstrate that changes in the provisioning of a specific sphingolipid from mothers to offspring in Caenorhabditis elegans can drive long-lasting changes in offspring metabolism, and protect offspring against neuronal damage3. This intergenerational change in metabolism appears to be mediated by a metabolic positive feedback loop that crosses a generational boundary3.

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Fig. 1: Maternal and progeny sphingolipid metabolism is linked.

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  1. Department of Epigenetics, Van Andel Institute, Grand Rapids, MI, USA

    Nicholas O. Burton

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  1. Nicholas O. Burton
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Correspondence to Nicholas O. Burton.

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Burton, N.O. A mother to offspring metabolic link. Nat Cell Biol 25, 1083–1084 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-023-01189-7

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