Dietary Intake Influences Adult Fertility and Offspring Fitness in Zebrafish

The burden of malnutrition, including both over- and undernutrition, is a major public health concern. Here we used a zebrafish model of diet-induced obesity to analyze the impact of dietary intake on fertility and the phenotype of the next generation. Over an eight-week period, one group received 60 mg of food each day (60 mg arm), while another received 5 mg (5 mg arm). At the end of the diet, the body mass index of the 60 mg arm was 1.5 fold greater than the 5 mg arm. The intervention also had a marked impact on fertility; breeding success and egg production in the 60 mg arm were increased 2.1- and 6.2-fold compared to the 5 mg arm, respectively. Transcriptome analysis of eggs revealed that transcripts involved in metabolic biological processes differed according to dietary intake. The progeny from the differentially fed fish were more likely to survive when the parents had access to more food. An intergenerational crossover study revealed that while parental diet did not influence weight gain in the offspring, the progeny of well-fed parents had increased levels of physical activity when exposed again to high nutrient availability. We conclude that dietary intake has an important influence on fertility and the subsequent fitness of offspring, even prior to breeding.