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Updated: Feb 8, 2026

Stable Isotope In-Vivo Labeling for Mass-Spectrometry Identification of Paternal Metabolites Transferred from Sperm to Oocyte During Fertilization
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Stable Isotope In-Vivo Labeling for Mass-Spectrometry Identification of Paternal Metabolites Transferred from Sperm to Oocyte During Fertilization

Published on: June 17, 2025

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The sperm factor: paternal impact beyond genes.

Simone Immler1

  • 1School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK. s.immler@uea.ac.uk.

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|July 1, 2018
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Paternal factors beyond DNA influence offspring health and development. Research explores how non-genetic elements in sperm impact offspring fitness, offering new evolutionary insights.

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Area of Science:

  • Reproductive Biology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Epigenetics

Background:

  • Sperm carry non-genetic information impacting offspring fitness.
  • Paternal effects on offspring development and performance are increasingly recognized.
  • The mechanisms and evolutionary basis of these paternal effects require further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore adaptive and non-adaptive explanations for paternal effects.
  • To review non-genetic components in sperm and their role in information transfer.
  • To identify key research questions and future directions in paternal effects.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review and synthesis of current research on paternal effects.
  • Analysis of non-genetic sperm components (DNA methylation, RNAs, proteins).
  • Discussion of evolutionary hypotheses and empirical evidence.

Main Results:

  • Accumulating evidence supports paternal effects on offspring.
  • Identified non-genetic sperm components include DNA methylation, RNAs, and proteins.
  • Several evolutionary explanations for paternal effects are proposed.

Conclusions:

  • Paternal non-genetic factors significantly influence offspring.
  • Further research is needed to understand the origin, function, and causation of these factors.
  • Investigating paternal effects opens new avenues in evolutionary and reproductive biology.