Right Parent Combination Drives Genetic Changes Up to Several Generations

Potential data unravels the mystery of how experiences may induce inheritable changes to an animal's biology as per a study at the University of Maryland, published in the journal Nature Communications. The study suggests that the role of epigenetic changes like diet, toxin exposure, trauma, and fear in one generation may have lasting effects on future generations. These can also turn genes on or off upon environmental exposure without altering the genome or DNA sequence.

But the exact ways that allow the passing down of changes through generations have not been understood. The study found that by mating nematode worms (Caenorhabditis elegans – C. elegans), permanent epigenetic changes were produced that lasted for more than 300 generations.

Epigenetic changes on Offsprings

"There's a lot of interest in heritable epigenetics. But getting clear answers is difficult. For instance, if I'm on some diet today, how does that affect my children and grandchildren and so on? No one knows, because so many different variables are involved. But we've found this very simple method, through mating, to turn off a single gene for multiple generations. And that gives us a huge opportunity to study how these stable epigenetic changes occur," says said Antony Jose, associate professor of cell biology and molecular genetics at UMD and senior author of the study.

Further analysis revealed that gene silencing depends upon the inheritance of a particular parent.

"We found that there are these RNA-based signals controlling gene expression. Some of these signals silence the gene and some of them are protective signals that prevent silencing. These signals are duking it out as the offspring develop. When the gene comes from the mother, the protective signal always wins, but when the gene comes from the father, the silencing signal almost always wins," says, Jose.

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However, the study also found that not all the genes were silenced. Some bounced back to become expressed in future generations. The study thereby speculates that this discovery may allow the exploration of how epigenetic changes are passed to future generations and what characteristics make genes susceptible to permanent epigenetic changes.

Source-Medindia