Effects of exposing Drosophila melanogaster parents to ethanol on expression of vestigial in their progeny.

When parental Drosophila melanogaster were chronically exposed at 28 degrees C or 24 degrees C to ethanol during their larval and pupal stages of development, their progeny, produced when parents were 5-16-day-old adults, showed modified expression of vestigial alleles in heterozygous and homozygous combinations. Parental alcohol effects were dependent on parental rearing temperature. We conclude that parental environment (alcohol, temperature) causes heritable but transitory changes in progeny phenotype that are elicited by exposure of germ cells to alcohol.