All articles tagged with #transgenerational inheritance
A single in utero exposure to the fungicide vinclozolin in rats increased disease risk across 20 generations, with severity climbing in later generations, implying heritable epigenetic changes that could illuminate the roots of chronic diseases in humans and inform preventative medicine; study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A Washington State University study in rats shows that a single in-utero exposure to the fungicide vinclozolin can imprint disease risk that persists for 20 generations, with birth-related mortality rising in later generations. The inherited effects are germline-based epigenetic changes, suggesting long-term implications for human disease and highlighting the potential for epigenetic biomarkers to enable preventative medicine decades before disease onset.
Researchers have developed a mouse model involving targeted DNA methylation to study the inheritance of epigenetic marks, such as methyl groups on DNA, from parent to offspring. Epigenetic modifications can arise in response to environmental cues and affect gene expression and cell type without altering DNA sequence. The mouse model will help address pressing mechanistic questions about transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (TGI).