Parental age at conception produces sex-specific physiological effects in offspring that persist into adulthood, with paternal age showing stronger effects on male offspring metabolism and stress response. These findings in a long-lived seabird model suggest that inherited physiological patterns from parents may constrain or enable longevity trajectories independent of direct genetic mutation.
Key Points
- Paternal age effects stronger on male offspring physiology and metabolism
- Maternal age impacts female offspring stress response and resilience patterns
- Sex-specific inheritance patterns persist from conception through adulthood
Longevity Analysis
The parent-of-origin effects documented here reveal that physiological capacity for stress regulation and energy production—core determinants of aging rate—are shaped not by genetic sequence alone but by parental age at conception. This means the developmental environment established before conception influences how efficiently an individual's stress response system, energy production machinery, and hormonal signaling will operate for decades. Understanding these sex-specific patterns allows practitioners to interpret individual variation in metabolic efficiency and stress resilience as partly inherited from parental timing, not just from genes or current lifestyle, expanding the window for meaningful intervention during critical developmental periods.
Original published by Nature - npj Aging, by Tuul Sepp.