In a new study conducted on flies, scientists have for the very first time found that a baby can have resemblance to the mother's former sexual partner.
The researchers have discovered a new form of non-genetic inheritance, known as telegony, which dated back to ancient Greek times, but was discredited in the early 20th Century with the advent of genetics.
To test it out, UNSW Australia scientists Dr Angela Crean, Professor Russell Bonduriansky and Dr Anna Kopps manipulated the size of male flies and studied their offspring. They found that the size of the young was determined by the size of the first male the mother mated with, rather than the second male that sired the offspring.
The researchers proposed that the effect was due to molecules in the seminal fluid of the first mate being absorbed by the female's immature eggs and then influencing the growth of offspring of a subsequent mate.
The team produced large and small male flies by feeding them diets as larvae that were high or low in nutrients. They then mated the immature females with either a large or a small male.
Once the females had matured, they were mated again with either a big or a small male, and their offspring were studied.
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It was found that even though the second male sired the offspring, offspring size was determined by what the mother's previous mating partner ate as a maggot, said Dr Crean.
Though the new findings take the study to a whole new level, showing a male could also transmit some of his acquired features to offspring sired by other males, they don't know yet whether this applied to other species.
The idea of telegony, as per which a male could leave a mark on his mate's body that influences her offspring to a different male, had originated with the Greek philosopher Aristotle. It was a concern to royalty in the 1300s and still popular as a scientific hypothesis in the 1800s, but was rejected in the early 1900s as incompatible with the new science of genetics.
The study is published in the journal Ecology Letters.