A sphingolipid message promotes neuronal health across generations

Maternal nutrition can affect brain function of offspring in later life(Fitzgerald et al.,2020).Emerging studies have also shown that the maternal environment can modify susceptibility to neurodegenerative disease(Boots et al.,2023).Transmission of environmental information from mother to offspring depends on maternal nutrient provisioning.In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans,maternal yolk,which is synthesized in the intestine and transferred to nourish oocytes and early embryos,can provide extranuclear inheritance factors to mediate phenotypic plasticity across generations.However,the molecular mechanisms of regulating such intergenerational effects remain largely unknown.