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University of New South Wales. "Semen secrets: How a previous sexual partner can influence another male's offspring." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 October 2014. .
University of New South Wales. (2014, October 1). Semen secrets: How a previous sexual partner can influence another male's offspring. ScienceDaily . Retrieved September 6, 2022 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141001090238.htm
University of New South Wales. "Semen secrets: How a previous sexual partner can influence another male's offspring." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141001090238.htm (accessed September 6, 2022).

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Semen secrets: How a previous sexual partner can influence another male's offspring https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141001090238.htm
Scientists have discovered a new form of non-genetic inheritance, showing for the first time that offspring can resemble a mother's previous sexual partner -- in flies at least. Researchers manipulated the size of male flies and studied their offspring. They found that the size of the young was determined by the size of the first male the mother mated with, rather than the second male that sired the offspring.
Scientists have discovered a new form of non-genetic inheritance, showing for the first time that offspring can resemble a mother's previous sexual partner -- in flies at least.
This confronting idea, known as telegony, dates back to ancient Greek times, but was discredited in the early 20th Century with the advent of genetics.
To test it out, UNSW Australia scientists Dr Angela Crean, Professor Russell Bonduriansky and Dr Anna Kopps manipulated the size of male flies and studied their offspring.
They found that the size of the young was determined by the size of the first male the mother mated with, rather than the second male that sired the offspring.
"Our discovery complicates our entire view of how variation is transmitted across generations, but also opens up exciting new possibilities and avenues of research. Just as we think we have things figured out, nature throws us a curve ball and shows us how much we still have to learn," says lead author Dr Crean.
The researchers propose that the effect is due to molecules in the seminal fluid of the first mate being absorbed by the female's immature eggs and then influencing the growth of offspring of a subsequent mate.
The study is published in the journal Ecology Letters .
The team produced large and small male flies by feeding them diets as larvae that were high or low in nutrients. They then mated the immature females with either a large or a small male.
Once the females had matured, they were mated again with either a big or a small male, and their offspring were studied.
"We found that even though the second male sired the offspring, offspring size was determined by what the mother's previous mating partner ate as a maggot," says Dr Crean.
Despite major advances in genetics, many questions remain about how some traits are inherited.
"We know that features that run in families are not just influenced by the genes that are passed down from parents to their children. Various non-genetic inheritance mechanisms make it possible for maternal or paternal environmental factors to influence characteristics of a child," says Dr Crean.
In the flies, for example, it has been shown that males that are well-fed as larvae go on to produce big offspring.
"Our new findings take this to a whole new level -- showing a male can also transmit some of his acquired features to offspring sired by other males," she says. "But we don't know yet whether this applies to other species."
The idea of telegony -- that a male can leave a mark on his mate's body that influences her offspring to a different male -- originated with the Greek philosopher Aristotle. It was a concern to royalty in the 1300s and still popular as a scientific hypothesis in the 1800s but rejected in the early 1900s as incompatible with the new science of genetics.
Materials provided by University of New South Wales . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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Questions What happens if you eat your own sperm?
Last updated Feb 09, 2015 Originally published Nov 15, 1996
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I'm worried. What happens if you eat your own sperm?

When sperm is ingested by swallowing semen, the sperm will be broken down and absorbed into the bloodstream as if consuming water, milk, or gelatin. If it's semen (the liquid that carries the sperm from the penis) that a person is worried about, ingesting one's own semen is safe if that person is free of sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

On the other hand, swallowing one's own semen is unsafe if a person has certain STIs. In this case, the risk depends on what STI a person has, its method of transmission, and the area(s) of infection. With swallowing semen, the primary concern is with infections that localize in the genitals, mouth, and/or throat. If the infection can be transferred through semen, and it can infect different locations independently, then there is a chance that the infection can spread to the mouth or throat. This type of infection includes gonorrhea and chlamydia.

Certain STIs, such as human papillomavirus (HPV, the virus that can cause genital warts), herpes, and syphilis, spread through direct, skin-to-skin or oral-genital contact. Some men can, and do, go down on themselves. If they have HPV, herpes, and/or syphilis, the infection(s) can spread from their penis to their lips, mouth, or throat.

Swallowing one's own semen does not pose health risks with respect to systemic infections (e.g., HIV). These infections are in the bloodstream and their symptoms are present throughout the body.

So if you're STI-free, feel free to indulge yourself! Just be careful you don't spoil your dinner.
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THERE’S more to semen than sperm. In many animals, seminal fluid alters both the bodies and sometimes even the behaviour of females. Human semen, too, triggers changes in the uterus, and might have wider effects on women, aimed at just one goal.
“It’s all about maximising the chances of the male reproducing,” says Sarah Robertson of the University of Adelaide in Australia. The effects are most striking in fruit flies: seminal fluid can make the females eat more, lay more eggs and be less receptive to other males .
Now a team led by Tracey Chapman at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, has found that male fruit flies selectively alter the chemical make-up of their seminal fluid. In the presence of rivals, the males produce more seminal proteins. “It came as a real surprise,” says Chapman. “It’s a sophisticated response to the social and sexual situation.”
Some of their findings were presented at the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution conference in Vienna, Austria, last week, including their discovery that one of these proteins is a “master regulator” of genes. Females exposed to it show a wide range of changes in gene expression.
Chapman thinks this kind of seminal signalling is widespread in the animal world. The semen of people, pigs and mice affects the female reproductive tract, and the question is whether it can also produce behavioural responses in female mammals similar to those seen in fruit flies.
“It’s all about maximising the chances of the male reproducing”
There have been claims that semen can do everything from making women sleepy after sex to strengthening the emotional bond with their partner. One 2002 study, based on a survey of 300 students, even found that women whose partners did not use condoms scored lower on a measure of depression .
If that effect is real, depression in some people might be treatable with artificial-semen suppositories. Gordon Gallup of the State University of New York at Albany, who carried out the study, says a PhD student of his has replicated the finding in a survey of 1000 women, but the results were never published.
In flies, seminal proteins can directly affect behaviour because they enter the circulatory system, travelling throughout the body to the brain. “They rapidly get to many places in the female,” Chapman says.
From the female’s perspective, seminal signalling is usually nothing sinister. According to Chapman, it’s an efficient way of getting a female’s body ready to produce offspring as soon as possible.
It’s not clear whether any components of human semen get into the bloodstream, but it could be possible, particularly for small molecules like hormones, says Robertson. She has shown that seminal fluid induces expression of a range of genes in the cervix, including ones that affect the immune system, ovulation, the receptivity of the uterus lining to an embryo, and even the growth of the embryo itself.
As for seminal signalling, she thinks it’s more likely to be indirect, with semen causing the cervix to produce molecules that influence the rest of the body. Her team is studying the effect of three microRNAs – RNA fragments that affect gene expression – released by the cervix in response to semen.
Whatever the mechanism, both Chapman and Robertson say it’s plausible that semen could have effects on women well beyond their reproductive tract.
This article appeared in print under the headline “Females heed seminal signals”

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