Maternal constraint on fetal growth patterns in the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta): the intergenerational link between mothers and daughters

The gestational experience of a mother can influence the intrauterine envir onment she pro,ides her own offspring, allowing prenatal events to affect p regnancy outcomes across several generations. Using a multigenerational dat abase, we determined the reproductive consequences for rhesus monkeys desce nded from small-for-date and large-for-date birth weight matrilines, Both t he maternal half-brothers and -sisters of large-for-date infants exhibited enhanced fetal growth, but for small-for-date probands, only the maternal h alf-sisters experienced significant intrauterine growth constraint In addit ion, the growth-restricted females were at higher risk of poor reproductive outcomes in adulthood, and they perpetuated the matrilineal birth weight p attern by selectively constraining the fetal development of their daughters , Collectively, these findings suggest a mechanism for the intergenerationa l persistence of suboptimal pregnancy outcomes.