Cargando…

The third barrier to transgenerational inheritance in animals: somatic epigenetic resetting

After early controversy, it is now increasingly clear that acquired responses to environmental factors may perpetuate across multiple generations—a phenomenon termed transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (TEI). Experiments with Caenorhabditis elegans, which exhibits robust heritable epigenetic ef...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ewe, Chee Kiang, Rechavi, Oded
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10074133/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36862326
http://dx.doi.org/10.15252/embr.202256615
_version_ 1785019710953226240
author Ewe, Chee Kiang
Rechavi, Oded
author_facet Ewe, Chee Kiang
Rechavi, Oded
author_sort Ewe, Chee Kiang
collection PubMed
description After early controversy, it is now increasingly clear that acquired responses to environmental factors may perpetuate across multiple generations—a phenomenon termed transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (TEI). Experiments with Caenorhabditis elegans, which exhibits robust heritable epigenetic effects, demonstrated small RNAs as key factors of TEI. Here, we discuss three major barriers to TEI in animals, two of which, the “Weismann barrier” and germline epigenetic reprogramming, have been known for decades. These are thought to effectively prevent TEI in mammals but not to the same extent in C. elegans. We argue that a third barrier—that we termed “somatic epigenetic resetting”—may further inhibit TEI and, unlike the other two, restricts TEI in C. elegans as well. While epigenetic information can overcome the Weismann barrier and transmit from the soma to the germline, it usually cannot “travel back” directly from the germline to the soma in subsequent generations. Nevertheless, heritable germline memory may still influence the animal's physiology by indirectly modifying gene expression in somatic tissues.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10074133
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher John Wiley and Sons Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-100741332023-04-06 The third barrier to transgenerational inheritance in animals: somatic epigenetic resetting Ewe, Chee Kiang Rechavi, Oded EMBO Rep Commentary After early controversy, it is now increasingly clear that acquired responses to environmental factors may perpetuate across multiple generations—a phenomenon termed transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (TEI). Experiments with Caenorhabditis elegans, which exhibits robust heritable epigenetic effects, demonstrated small RNAs as key factors of TEI. Here, we discuss three major barriers to TEI in animals, two of which, the “Weismann barrier” and germline epigenetic reprogramming, have been known for decades. These are thought to effectively prevent TEI in mammals but not to the same extent in C. elegans. We argue that a third barrier—that we termed “somatic epigenetic resetting”—may further inhibit TEI and, unlike the other two, restricts TEI in C. elegans as well. While epigenetic information can overcome the Weismann barrier and transmit from the soma to the germline, it usually cannot “travel back” directly from the germline to the soma in subsequent generations. Nevertheless, heritable germline memory may still influence the animal's physiology by indirectly modifying gene expression in somatic tissues. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2023-03-02 /pmc/articles/PMC10074133/ /pubmed/36862326 http://dx.doi.org/10.15252/embr.202256615 Text en © 2023 The Authors. Published under the terms of the CC BY NC ND 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
spellingShingle Commentary
Ewe, Chee Kiang
Rechavi, Oded
The third barrier to transgenerational inheritance in animals: somatic epigenetic resetting
title The third barrier to transgenerational inheritance in animals: somatic epigenetic resetting
title_full The third barrier to transgenerational inheritance in animals: somatic epigenetic resetting
title_fullStr The third barrier to transgenerational inheritance in animals: somatic epigenetic resetting
title_full_unstemmed The third barrier to transgenerational inheritance in animals: somatic epigenetic resetting
title_short The third barrier to transgenerational inheritance in animals: somatic epigenetic resetting
title_sort third barrier to transgenerational inheritance in animals: somatic epigenetic resetting
topic Commentary
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10074133/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36862326
http://dx.doi.org/10.15252/embr.202256615
work_keys_str_mv AT ewecheekiang thethirdbarriertotransgenerationalinheritanceinanimalssomaticepigeneticresetting
AT rechavioded thethirdbarriertotransgenerationalinheritanceinanimalssomaticepigeneticresetting
AT ewecheekiang thirdbarriertotransgenerationalinheritanceinanimalssomaticepigeneticresetting
AT rechavioded thirdbarriertotransgenerationalinheritanceinanimalssomaticepigeneticresetting