Team DailyPedia
Could your past flings have an impact on your offspring with a future mate?
Scientists have recently found that there is much more to parents’ DNA helping form their offsprings’ genetic makeup. A study carried out by researchers at University of New South Wales in Australia on fruit flies suggests that chemicals from previous partner’s semen could have lingering effects.
More importantly, researchers believe that something similar could happen in humans.
First proposed by Aristotle in ancient Greece, the theory known as “telegony” was one of the reasons kings were prohibited from marrying divorcees. However, this theory was discredited due to advances in genetics.
In the 2014 study, the offspring of female fruit flies which mated with males with varying sizes were observed. Their findings revealed that a male, whether large or small, that mated with a female fruit fly before she was fertile would pass his sperm along. However, since the female fly’s eggs are immature, these will not be fertilized.
Two weeks later, the scientists were surprised to find that the size of the offspring was influenced by the size of the first male fly the mother mated with, rather than the second male which actually sired the offspring.
According to Prof. Russel Bonduriansky, some female animals can store semen from several male partners before allowing any of it to fertilize their eggs. This allows females to reap the benefits by holding out for the best DNA.
“Females might be choosy even when they do not have eggs ready to be fertilized. They might be getting something for future offspring that will be fertilized later on, or they might be getting something for themselves,” Prof. Bonduriansky explained.
