Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks St, Toronto, ON, M5S 3B2, Canada.
Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, 319 Stadium Dr, Tallahassee, FL, 32304, USA.
Sci Rep. 2021 Feb 17;11(1):3985. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-83448-x.
Evidence is emerging that paternal effects, the nongenetic influence of fathers on their offspring, can be transgenerational, spanning several generations. Methylphenidate hydrochloride (MPH; e.g. Ritalin) is a dopaminergic drug that is highly prescribed to adolescent males for the treatment of Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. It has been suggested that MPH could cause transgenerational effects because MPH can affect the male germline in rodents and because paternal effects have been observed in individuals taking similar drugs (e.g. cocaine). Despite these concerns, the transgenerational effects of paternal MPH exposure are unknown. Therefore, we exposed male and female Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) to a low, chronic dose of MPH and observed that MPH affected the anxiety/exploratory behaviour of males, but not females. Because of this male-specific effect, we investigated the transgenerational effects of MPH through the paternal line. We observed behavioural effects of paternal MPH exposure on offspring and great-grandoffspring that were not directly administered the drug, making this the first study to demonstrate that paternal MPH exposure can affect descendants. These effects were not due to differential mortality or fecundity between control and MPH lines. These results highlight the transgenerational potential of MPH.
越来越多的证据表明，父系效应（即父亲对后代的非遗传影响）可以跨代传递，跨越几代。盐酸哌甲酯（MPH；例如利他林）是一种多巴胺能药物，在青少年男性中被高度开给用于治疗注意力缺陷/多动障碍。有人认为 MPH 可能会产生跨代效应，因为 MPH 可以影响啮齿动物的雄性生殖细胞，而且服用类似药物（例如可卡因）的个体也观察到了父系效应。尽管存在这些担忧，但父系 MPH 暴露的跨代效应尚不清楚。因此，我们让雄性和雌性特立尼达孔雀鱼（Poecilia reticulata）暴露于低剂量的 MPH 中，并观察到 MPH 影响了雄性的焦虑/探索行为，但对雌性没有影响。由于这种雄性特异性效应，我们通过父系线研究了 MPH 的跨代效应。我们观察到父系 MPH 暴露对未直接给予药物的后代和曾孙代的行为影响，这是首次证明 MPH 暴露的父系可以影响后代的研究。这些影响不是由于对照和 MPH 系之间的死亡率或生育力差异所致。这些结果强调了 MPH 的跨代潜力。
