Nutritional Programming and Effect of Ancestor Diet in Birds

Abstract

Phenotype variability depends on genetics and environmental factors. Improving farm animal performances relies on genetic variability, but the possible improvement of selection schemes taking into account nongenetic transgenerational inheritance has become a topic of choice. Indeed, the parental diet may influence the adult phenotype of the offspring, and more and more studies suggest that information acquired from environmental exposures may be transmitted across generations. In this review, we focus on nongenetic inheritance of diet effects in birds, either as parental effect, that is, "nutritional programming," or through the transmission of information across several generations, via "transgenerational epigenetic inheritance." Compared to mammal models with regard to their closer proximity with humans, bird models have the added benefit to minimize maternal confounding effects by a direct manipulation of the egg content.