The most revolutionary research study to be published in at least the
last ten years. The very first proof of principle experiment,
empirical demonstration of cause and effect that conclusively
demonstrates that environmental exposures ARE inherited by ALL
subsequent generations.
Was Lamarck genetics correct?
Are the obesity and autism epidemics the result of epigenetic
transgenerational inheritance?
Epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of altered stress responses
Abstract
Ancestral environmental exposures have previously been shown to
promote epigenetic transgenerational inheritance and influence all
aspects of an individual's life history. In addition, proximate life
events such as chronic stress have documented effects on the
development of physiological, neural, and behavioral phenotypes in
adulthood. We used a systems biology approach to investigate in male
rats the interaction of the ancestral modifications carried
transgenerationally in the germ line and the proximate modifications
involving chronic restraint stress during adolescence. We find that a
single exposure to a common-use fungicide (vinclozolin) three
generations removed alters the physiology, behavior, metabolic
activity, and transcriptome in discrete brain nuclei in descendant
males, causing them to respond differently to chronic restraint
stress. This alteration of baseline brain development promotes a
change in neural genomic activity that correlates with changes in
physiology and behavior, revealing the interaction of genetics,
environment, and epigenetic transgenerational inheritance in the
shaping of the adult phenotype. This is an important demonstration in
an animal that ancestral exposure to an environmental compound
modifies how descendants of these progenitor individuals perceive and
respond to a stress challenge experienced during their own life
history.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22615374
Article ON Epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of altered stress
responses
http://tinyurl.com/cn9wt58
Short Video interview with research author Michael Skinner. The
interview eventually gets into the implications of this research. Or,
how environment exposures can impact environmental epigenetics and
disease susceptibility in generations to come. A lead researcher in
the field OF Transgenerational epigenetics who gave this talk, 6
months before the current study was published.
http://tinyurl.com/bn738dl
Long Video interview with lead author David Crews that gets into the
implications of this research.
http://tinyurl.com/87n4ban