It seems that inheritance is not simply about parents passing genes to their offspring. Some inheritable changes in gene activity can be passed on without changing the DNA sequencing, as researchers from Emory University School of Medicine claim that mice can inherit the memory of their ancestor's traumas and display similar responses when faced with the stimuli.
The findings of this latest study in epigenetics, published in Nature Neuroscience, show that the offspring of laboratory mice trained to fear a particular smell demonstrated the same fear reaction as their ancestor.
They were also able to detect smaller concentrations of the odor than the offspring of untrained mice.
Co-author of the study, Brian Dias, explains the importance of the findings:
"Knowing how ancestral experiences influence descendant generations will allow us to understand more about the development of neuropsychiatric disorders that have a transgenerational basis."
For the experiments, mice were subjected to small electric shocks while in a chamber smelling of acetophenone, a chemical that smells like cherry blossom. The mice soon associated the smell with pain, quivering when just the smell was present.
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