Jordan C Harris, Natalie A Trigg, Bruktawit Goshu, Yuichi Yokoyama, Lenka Dohnalová, Ellen K White, Adele Harman, Sofía M Murga-Garrido, Jamie Ting-Chun Pan, Preeti Bhanap, Christoph A Thaiss, Elizabeth A Grice, Colin C Conine, Taku Kambayashi
The host-microbiota relationship has evolved to shape mammalian physiology, including immunity, metabolism, and development. Germ-free models are widely used to study microbial effects on host processes such as immunity. Here, we find that both germ-free and T cell-deficient mice exhibit a robust sebum secretion defect persisting across multiple generations despite microbial colonization and T cell repletion. These phenotypes are inherited by progeny conceived during in vitro fertilization using germ-free sperm and eggs, demonstrating that non-genetic information in the gametes is required for microbial-dependent phenotypic transmission...
April 3, 2024: Cell Reports