Fig. 1

Experimental design and tail fatty acid profiles. a fat-1 (n = 15) and WT mothers (n = 9) were mated while on a high-n-6 PUFA diet (10% corn oil). At birth, WT offspring were cross-fostered to different mothers for the period of lactation (4 weeks) to produce four experimental groups based on the mothers’ genotype (biological mother’s genotype/foster mother’s genotype): fat-1/WT (n = 8 males, n = 7 females), WT/fat-1 (n = 9 males, n = 10 females), fat-1/fat-1 (n = 9 males, n = 5 females), and WT/WT (n = 10 males, n = 10 females). During lactation, mothers were continued on a high-n-6 PUFA diet. After 4 weeks of lactation, offspring were weaned onto a high-fat diet (HFD) (60% kcal from fat) for 3 months during which body weights were assessed along with a number of other parameters. b WT mothers displayed a significantly greater tail n-6/n-3 ratio compared with fat-1 mothers. c Following lactation for 4 weeks and prior to HFD, WT/WT male offspring had significantly greater tail n-6/n-3 ratio compared with all other groups. d However, after 3 months on a HFD, differences in tail n-6/n-3 fatty acid ratio were eliminated and there were no significant differences between groups. Data shown as mean ± SEM. n = 5–15 per group, n = 1–4 per cage. Bars with different letters are significantly different