ReviewHeredity2018
The sperm factor: paternal impact beyond genes.
Review in Heredity, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 56 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
56 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Sperm sncRNA networks are synchronized by a coordination between adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and current stress.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Thirty Years of the Biology of Spermatozoa: The Rise and Future of an Evolutionary Paradigm.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Article
- Does a Father's Social Environment Influence Their Sons' Sperm Sex Ratio? Potential for the Epigenetic Transmission of a Sex-Allocating Mechanism.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Safety concerns of paternal drug exposure on fertility, pregnancy and offspring: An analysis based on the FDA adverse event reporting system.Andrology · 2025Article
- Matching maternal and paternal experiences underpin molecular thermal acclimation.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Sperm DNA methylation landscape and its links to male fertility in a non-model teleost using EM-seq.Heredity · 2025Article
- Environmentally induced variation in sperm sRNAs is linked to gene expression and transposable elements in zebrafish offspring.Heredity · 2025Article
- Silent cells? Potential for context-dependent gene expression in mature sperm.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Sperm miR-142-3p Reprogramming Mediates Paternal Pre-Pregnancy Caffeine Exposure-Induced Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis in Male Offspring Rats.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2024Article
- Heatwave-Induced Paternal Effects Have Limited Adaptive Benefits in Offspring.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Variation in Lipid Peroxidation in the Ejaculates of Wild Banded Mongooses (Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Pesticide exposure triggers sex-specific inter- and transgenerational effects conditioned by past sexual selection.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- [Sperm Mosaic Variants and Their Influence on the Offspring].Sichuan da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Sichuan University. Medical science edition · 2024Review
- Oocyte Vitrification Reduces its Capability to Repair Sperm DNA Fragmentation and Impairs Embryonic Development.Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) · 2024Article
- Decrease in Sperm Parameters in the 21st Century: Obesity, Lifestyle, or Environmental Factors? An Updated Narrative Review.Journal of personalized medicine · 2024Review
- Predator-induced transgenerational plasticity of parental care behaviour in male three-spined stickleback fish across two generations.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Parental thermal conditions affect the brain activity response to alarm cue in larval zebrafish.PeerJ · 2024Article
- Environmental and Genetic Traffic in the Journey from Sperm to Offspring.Biomolecules · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The fact that sperm carry more than the paternal DNA has only been discovered just over a decade ago. With this discovery, the idea that the paternal condition may have direct implications for the fitness of the offspring had to be revisited. While this idea is still highly debated, empirical evidence for paternal effects is accumulating. Male condition not only affects male fertility but also offspring early development and performance later in life. Several factors have been identified as possible carriers of non-genetic information, but we still know little about their origin and function and even less about their causation. I consider four possible non-mutually exclusive adaptive and non-adaptive explanations for the existence of paternal effects in an evolutionary context. In addition, I provide a brief overview of the main non-genetic components found in sperm including DNA methylation, chromatin modifications, RNAs and proteins. I discuss their putative functions and present currently available examples for their role in transferring non-genetic information from the father to the offspring. Finally, I identify some of the most important open questions and present possible future research avenues.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.