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Unborn babies are in a perpetual nutritional tug-of-war with their mothers due to a “greedy” gene inherited from their fathers, a new study suggests. Scientists from the University of Cambridge have found that foetuses use the gene to “remote-control” their mother into feeding them extra food and control her metabolism. While the mother’s body wants the baby to survive, it needs to keep enough glucose and fats circulating in her system for her own health in order to be able to deliver the child, breastfeed, and reproduce again. Amanda Sferruzzi-Perri, professor in Foetal and Placental Physiology, a Fellow of St John’s College and co-senior author of the paper, said: “It’s the first direct evidence that a gene inherited from the father is signalling to the mother to divert nutrients to the foetus.” Dr Miguel Constancia, MRC investigator based at the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science and co-senior author of the paper, said: “The baby’s remote control system is operated by genes that can be switched on or off depending on whether they are a ‘dad’s’ or ‘mum’s’ gene’, the so-called imprinted genes. “Genes controlled by the father are ‘greedy’ and ‘selfish’ and will tend to manipulate maternal resources for the benefit of the foetuses, so to grow them big and fittest. “Although pregnancy is largely cooperative, there is a big arena for potential conflict between the mother and the baby, with imprinted genes and the placenta thought to play key roles.” The new study looked at how the placenta communicates with the mother through the release of hormones so she can accommodate her baby’s growth. In pregnant mice, scientists selectively altered the signalling cells in the placenta that tell mothers to allocate nutrients to her developing foetuses. The baby’s genes controlled by the father tend to promote foetal growth and those controlled by the mother tend to limit foetal growth, experts say. Professor Sferruzzi-Perri explained: “Those genes from the mother that limit foetal growth are thought to be a mother’s way of ensuring her survival, so she doesn’t have a baby that takes all the nutrients and is too big and challenging to birth. “The mother also has a chance of having subsequent pregnancies potentially with different males in the future to pass on her genes more widely.” In the study researchers deleted the expression of an important gene called Igf2, which provides instructions for making a protein called “Insulin Like Growth Factor Two”. Similar to the hormone insulin, which is responsible for making glucose and controlling its levels in our circulation, the gene promotes foetal growth and plays a key part in the development of tissues including the placenta, liver, and brain. Dr Jorge Lopez-Tello, a lead author of the study based at Cambridge’s department of physiology, development and neuroscience, said: “If the function of Igf2 from the father is switched off in signalling cells, the mother doesn’t make enough amounts of glucose and lipids – fats – available in her circulation. “These nutrients, therefore, reach the foetus in insufficient amounts and the foetus doesn’t grow properly.” The scientists found that deleting the gene also affects production of other hormones that modulate the way the mother’s pancreas produces insulin, and how her liver and other metabolic organs respond. Babies with Igf2 gene defects can be overgrown or growth-stunted. And the researchers say that until now, it was not known that part of the gene’s role is to regulate signalling to the mother to allocate nutrients to the unborn child. The mice studied were smaller at birth and their offspring showed early signs of diabetes and obesity in later life. Professor Sferruzzi-Perri said: “Our research highlights how important the controlled allocation of nutrients to the foetus is for the lifelong health of the offspring, and the direct role the placenta plays. “The placenta is an amazing organ. At the end of pregnancy, the placenta is delivered by the mother, but the memories of how the placenta was functioning leaves a lasting legacy on the way those foetal organs have developed and then how they’re going to function through life.” The findings are published in the Cell Metabolism journal. Reporting by PA Read More It took until my thirties to realise I might not be white Carrie Johnson announces birth of third child with Boris Johnson: ‘Guess which name my husband chose’ How many children does Boris Johnson have? The meaning behind the name of Carrie and Boris Johnson’s third child Emilia Clarke’s brain haemorrhage ‘profoundly changed our lives’, says star’s mother How many children does Boris Johnson have?

Oh, to be a guest at a dinner party thrown by Nigella Lawson. It’s the stuff of dreams. On TV, she always made hosting look so effortlessly elegant, passing around plates piled high with luscious-looking food to her laughing guests, fairy lights twinkling above them as though they were ethereal beings blessed by the Domestic Goddess herself. To my teenage self, having a glamorous dinner party was the height of adulthood – Nigella was a huge inspiration. But these days, Nigella says she is less inclined to host a big dinner party – the ones that the public see on her shows like Nigellissima and Nigella Feasts are actually rare. In a new interview with The Times, she revealed that she has fallen “out of the habit” of big gatherings, adding: “I’ll have a person or a couple of people over quite often and I keep planning to have people round in a proper grown-up way but I haven’t yet. I must! I feel a bit guilty because people have had me for dinner and I haven’t had them back.” One could argue that it’s fair for dinner parties to be a thing of the past for Lawson, who has been setting the bar for these things for the past 20 years or so. She can and should do whatever she likes that makes her comfortable. But for me, a woman in her thirties, I still haven’t had the pleasure of planning and throwing a Nigella-level dinner party, and that makes me rather sad. I want to be the hostess with the mostest. I sometimes fantasise about who I’d invite, what I’d cook, what dishes I’d use, what playlist I’d throw on. When I lived in Malaysia, I had a large flat all to myself for just a few months. This period coincided with a New Year’s Eve that, at the last minute, had me throwing a party for everyone who didn’t already have plans. It wasn’t a Nigella-esque party given its eleventh hour nature, but it was perfect for the time – we ordered pizzas and people brought snacks and booze, and we all stayed up late chatting, listening to music, ringing in the new year. What bliss! But modern living quarters have shrunk so much that it makes me claustrophobic just thinking about it. These days, even the idea of a dining room that is separate from the living room feels like a pipe dream for my generation. Entire houses that would have been occupied by one family have been sliced into flats that squeeze multiple households under one roof. The abominable creation of “studio apartments” that force tenants to cook, eat, and sleep in the same space hardly offer the means to have friends over for dinner. Don’t even speak to me about buying a house – I’m just trying to keep my head above water with rent prices, which reached record highs in June. And no, giving up lattes from Pret has not helped one iota. Inflation and wage stagnation have also stamped on my dreams of being a dinner party pro. I’m sorry to be That Person, but have you done a weekly grocery shop recently? I find myself wincing at the checkout more and more with each shop, and I’m only shopping for two. I can’t imagine buying a week’s worth of groceries for a family, let alone a party of more than four. This year, I made a Chinese New Year meal for six people – two of us had to eat on the sofa – and the cost nearly bowled me over. I desperately wanted to do it, but I did not relish looking at my bank balance afterwards. Then there’s the cost of decorations to think about. If TikTok videos are to be believed, decorating is easy as pie, with hundreds of influencers telling you that all you need is a unique table runner; huge bunches of beautiful flowers dotted around; mismatched tableware for a cutesy, vintage feel; tall candles; linen napkins tied up with string. But all of this costs more money than you’d expect, and “hacks” like getting up at 5am to go to Columbia Road Flower Market to get cheaper blooms aren’t all that helpful when work and other commitments demand your time. Of course, where there’s a will, there’s a way. Nigella’s suggestion of serving Twiglets as a starter is unconventional, but fun and cheap; as is her preferred method of making “a big plate of food, taking it out and seeing everyone eat”. Certainly, her latest Ocado recipe for sardine spaghetti – which uses humble tinned sardines in tomato sauce – is cheap, cheerful and entirely delicious, perfectly suited for feeding a large number of people on a budget. This isn’t too surprising: Nigella has always had her finger on the pulse of the public mood, and her other recent Ocado recipes, which feed four people for under £5, will come in handy for many who are struggling. But looking back at the dinner parties she’s hosted on her TV shows, perhaps they weren’t so lavish after all. The immense appeal and pleasure of Nigella’s gatherings has always stemmed from the fact that she cooks what she loves, for people she loves, no matter the number. Her shows, too, made these intimate parties look sparkly and lavish, but underneath all of them lay the bare bones of a great night in: sharing delicious food with wonderful company. I can’t help but grieve for the parties I could’ve had by now. I wish I could fill my home with people without worrying about whether there are enough chairs or if the neighbours above and below me are grinding their teeth, waiting for 10pm to roll around so they can knock on the door and tell us to keep it down. It remains my fervent aspiration, still, to someday throw a Nigella Feasts-worthy dinner party. Until then, I’ll just have to comfort myself with the reminder that even Nigella isn’t up for that these days – and that entertaining for a smaller number of people can be just as satisfying. Read More It took until my thirties to realise I might not be white Solitude used to mean sad singledom. Now it’s become a status symbol I’d waste hours watching ‘What I Eat in a Day’ videos. I can’t believe they’ve made a comeback

For months, federal prosecutors have brought witnesses in front of a grand jury in Washington, DC, to investigate efforts by former President Donald Trump and his close allies to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election.