The developing organism senses maternally transmitted environmental cues

The developing organism senses maternally transmitted environmental cues, such as undernutrition, during prenatal and early postnatal life. Developmental flexibility in response to these cues modifies the default trajectory defined by the inherited fetal genome and epigenome according to whether the environment is perceived as adequate (dark background) or deprived (light background), resulting in metabolic adjustments. If the eventual mature environment, whether adequate or deprived, matches the prediction, then the risk of metabolic disease in later life is low. If there is a mismatch between the predicted and actual mature environments, particularly if the mature environment is richer than anticipated, then the risk of metabolic disease is enhanced.