transgenerational inheritance

Numerous examples of different phenotypic outcomes in response to varying environmental conditions have been described across phyla, from plants to mammals. Here, we examine the impact of the environment on different developmental traits, focusing in particular on one key environmental variable, nutrient availability. We present advances in our understanding of developmental plasticity in response to food variation using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, which provides a near-isogenic context while permitting lab-controlled environments and analysis of wild isolates...

Genomic imprinting-the non-equivalence of maternal and paternal genomes-is a critical process that has evolved independently in many plant and mammalian species1,2 . According to kinship theory, imprinting is the inevitable consequence of conflictive selective forces acting on differentially expressed parental alleles3,4 . Yet, how these epigenetic differences evolve in the first place is poorly understood3,5,6 . Here we report the identification and molecular dissection of a parent-of-origin effect on gene expression that might help to clarify this fundamental question...

INTRODUCTION: The ability to identify early epigenetic signatures underlying the inheritance of cardiovascular risk, including trans- and intergenerational effects, may help to stratify people before cardiac symptoms occur. METHODS: Prospective and retrospective cohorts and case-control studies focusing on DNA methylation and maternal/paternal effects were searched in Pubmed from 1997 to 2023 by using the following keywords: DNA methylation, genomic imprinting, and network analysis in combination with transgenerational/intergenerational effects...

It has been previously established that paternal development of a strong incentive motivation for cocaine can predispose offspring to develop high cocaine-seeking behavior, as opposed to sole exposure to the drug that results in drug resistance in offspring. However, the adaptive changes of the reward circuitry have not been fully elucidated. To infer the key nuclei and possible hub genes that determine susceptibility to addiction in offspring, rats were randomly assigned to three groups, cocaine self-administration (CSA), yoked administration (Yoke), and saline self-administration (SSA), and used to generate F1...

Dopamine (DA) is mainly involved in locomotor activity, reward processes and maternal behaviors. Rats with KO gene for dopamine transporter (DAT) coding for a truncated DAT protein are in hyperdopaminergic conditions and develop stereotyped behaviors and hyperactivity. Our aim was to test the prior transgenerational modulation of wild and truncated allele as expressed in heterozygous DAT rats: specifically we addressed the possible sequelae due to genotype and gender of the ancestors, with regard to behavioral differences in F1 , F2 , F3 rats...

Spermatozoa were classically known as vehicles for the delivery of the paternal genome to the oocyte. However, in 1962, spermatozoa were discovered to carry significant amounts of RNA in them, which raised questions about the significance of these molecules in such a highly specialized cell. Scientific research in the last six decades has investigated the biological significance of sperm RNAs by various means. Irrespective of what sperm RNAs do, their presence in spermatozoa has attracted attention for their exploitation as biomarkers of fertility...

Germline de novo mutations (DNMs) refer to spontaneous mutations arising during gametogenesis, resulting in genetic changes within germ cells that are subsequently transmitted to the next generation. While the impact of maternal exposures on germline DNMs has been extensively studied, more recent studies have begun to highlight the increasing importance of the effects of paternal factors. In this review, we have summarized the existing literature on how various exposures experienced by fathers affect the germline DNM burden in their spermatozoa, as well as their consequences for semen analysis parameters, pregnancy outcomes, and offspring health...

Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in mammals remains a controversial phenomenon. A recent study by Takahashi et al. provides evidence for this mode of inheritance in mice by using a CRISPR/Cas9-based epigenetic editing technique to modify DNA methylation levels at specific promoters and then demonstrating the inheritance of the gain in methylation in offspring. In this technical commentary, we argue that the method used in the original study inherently amplifies the likelihood of genetic changes that thereafter lead to the heritability of epigenetic changes...

The herbicide linuron can cause endocrine disrupting effects in Xenopus tropicalis frogs, including offspring that were never exposed to the contaminant. The mechanisms by which these effects are transmitted across generations need to be further investigated. Here, we examined transgenerational alterations of brain and testis DNA methylation profiles paternally inherited from grandfathers developmentally exposed to an environmentally relevant concentration of linuron. Reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) revealed numerous differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in brain (3060 DMRs) and testis (2551 DMRs) of the adult male F2 generation...

AbstractNumerous empirical studies have witnessed an increase in meiotic recombination rate in response to physiological stress imposed by unfavorable environmental conditions. Thus, inherited plasticity in recombination rate is hypothesized to be evolutionarily advantageous in changing environments. Previous theoretical models proceeded from the assumption that organisms increase their recombination rate when the environment becomes more stressful and demonstrated the evolutionary advantage of such a form of plasticity...

Plant responses to abiotic stresses are dynamic, following the unpredictable changes of physical environmental parameters such as temperature, water and nutrients. Physiological and phenotypical responses to stress are intercalated by periods of recovery. An earlier stress can be remembered as 'stress memory' to mount a response within a generation or transgenerationally. The 'stress priming' phenomenon allows plants to respond quickly and more robustly to stressors to increase survival, and therefore has significant implications for agriculture...

Cyanobacteria cell lysates release numerous toxic substances (e.g., cyanotoxins) into the water, posing a serious threat to human health and aquatic ecosystems. Microcystins (MCs) are among the most abundant cyanotoxins in the cell lysates, with microcystin-LR (MC-LR) being one of the most common and highly toxic congeners. In this study, zebrafish (Danio rerio) were exposed to different levels MC-LR that from extracts of Microcystis aeruginosa. Changes in the MC-LR accumulations, organ coefficients, and antioxidant enzyme activities in the zebrafish were analyzed...

Mercury (Hg) and vitamin A (VitA) are two environmental factors with potential health impacts, especially during pregnancy and early childhood. Fish and seafood may present elevated levels of methylmercury (MeHg), the major Hg derivative, and VitA. This study aimed to evaluate the transgenerational effects of exposure to MeHg and/or VitA on epigenetic and toxicological parameters in a Wistar rat model. Our findings revealed persistent toxicological effects in generations F1 and F2 following low/mild doses of MeHg and/or VitA exposure during dams' (F0) gestation and breastfeeding...

Clubroot caused by the protist Plasmodiophora brassicae is a major disease affecting cultivated Brassicaceae. Using a combination of QTL fine mapping, CRISPR/Cas9 validation and extensive analyses of DNA sequence and methylation patterns, we uncovered that the two adjacent neighboring NLR (nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich repeat) genes AT5G47260 and AT5G47280 cooperate in controlling broad-spectrum quantitative partial resistance to the root pathogen P. brassicae in Arabidopsis and that they are epigenetically regulated...

While the vertebrate immune system consists of innate and adaptive branches, invertebrates only have innate immunity. This feature makes them an ideal model system for studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms of innate immunity sensu stricto without reciprocal interferences from adaptive immunity. Although invertebrate immunity is evolutionarily older and a precursor of vertebrate immunity, it is far from simple. Despite lacking lymphocytes and functional immunoglobulin, the invertebrate immune system has many sophisticated mechanisms and features, such as long-term immune memory, which, for decades, have been exclusively attributed to adaptive immunity...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that causes debilitating functional impairment in patients. Observations from survivors of traumatic historical events solidify that this disease is not only associated with personal experiences but can also be inherited from familial traumas. Over the past decades, researchers have focused on epigenetic inheritance to understand how responses to adverse experiences can be passed down to future generations. This review aims to present recent findings on epigenetic markers related to PTSD and research in the intergenerational inheritance of trauma...

BACKGROUND: Obese patients have been found to be susceptible to iron deficiency, and malabsorption of dietary iron is the cause of obesity-related iron deficiency (ORID). Divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1) and ferroportin (FPN), are two transmembrane transporter proteins expressed in the duodenum that are closely associated with iron absorption. However, there have been few studies on the association between these two proteins and the increased susceptibility to iron deficiency in obese patients...

Heavy metal toxicity is a significant global health concern, with particular attention given to lead (Pb) exposure due to its adverse effects on cognitive development, especially in children exposed to low concentrations. While Pb neurotoxicity has been extensively studied, the analysis and molecular mechanisms underlying the transgenerational effects of Pb exposure-induced neurotoxicity remain poorly understood. In this study, we utilized Drosophila, a powerful developmental animal model, to investigate this phenomenon...

Chronic stress and alcohol (ethanol) use are highly interrelated and can change an individual's behavior through molecular adaptations that do not change the DNA sequence, but instead change gene expression. A recent wealth of research has found that these nongenomic changes can be transmitted across generations, which could partially account for the "missing heritability" observed in genome-wide association studies of alcohol use disorder and other stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders. In this review, we summarize the molecular and behavioral outcomes of nongenomic inheritance of chronic stress and ethanol exposure and the germline mechanisms that could give rise to this heritability...

While physiologic stress has long been known to impair mammalian reproductive capacity through hormonal dysregulation, mounting evidence now suggests that stress experienced prior to or during gestation may also negatively impact the health of future offspring. Rodent models of gestational physiologic stress can induce neurologic and behavioral changes that persist for up to three generations, suggesting that stress signals can induce lasting epigenetic changes in the germline. Treatment with glucocorticoid stress hormones is sufficient to recapitulate the transgenerational changes seen in physiologic stress models...