Fig. 7: Sperm and oocytes differentially transmit heritable adaptation information to progeny.

a Schematic of experimental design for crosses within (controls) and between (experimental) fully adapted animals. All crosses were performed on OP. Mated hermaphrodites are transferred to a drop of bleach on a plate seeded with each test bacterial strain The bleach dissolves the adult and all associated bacteria. The embryos survive the bleach, hatch, and crawl to the food. Prior to adulthood, single cross-progeny (non-Unc) hermaphrodites are placed on individual plates to count full broods. b–d Quartile box plots (whisker 1.5*IQR) of brood sizes of the indicated cross-progeny between OP- and PB-adapted him-5 males and unc-42 hermaphrodites on the indicated bacterial foods. Two independent replicates, with n = 10 cross progeny per condition (n = 9 for PB male crossed to OP hermaphrodite in (c), replicate 2 and (d) replicate 2). d P values for replicate 1 only, were calculated by Welch’s t-test, 2 sided. Source data and numerical P-values are provided as a Source Data file. e, f Quartile box plots (whisker 1.5*IQR) of brood size of the indicated cross progeny between BS- and SM-adapted him-5 males and unc-42 hermaphrodites grown on the indicated bacterial foods. Two independent replicates, with n = 10 cross progeny per condition replicate 1 (n = 9 for BS male crossed to SM hermaphrodite in panel f replicate 1), n = 5 for replicate 2. The lines indicate samples to be compared to evaluate the contribution of sperm and oocytes to cross progeny adaptation. The inset numbers are the difference in mean brood size for sperm (sp) and oocyte (oo) transmitted adaptation information. Source data and numerical P values are provided as a Source Data file.