Disruption of histone methylation in developing sperm impairs offspring health transgenerationally [sperm]

A father’s lifetime experiences can be transmitted to his offspring to affect health and development. The mechanisms underlying paternal epigenetic transmission are unclear. Unlike somatic cells, there are few nucleosomes in sperm and their function in epigenetic inheritance is unknown. We generated transgenic mice in which overexpression of the histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) demethylase LSD1/KDM1A during spermatogenesis reduced H3K4 dimethylation in sperm. KDM1A overexpression in one generation severely impaired development and survivability of offspring. These defects persisted transgenerationally in the absence of KDM1A germ line expression and were associated with altered RNA profiles in sperm and offspring. We show that epigenetic inheritance of aberrant development can be initiated by histone demethylase activity in developing sperm, without changes to DNA methylation at CpG-rich regions. Identification of the RNA population in sperm of wildtype mice, KDM1A transgenic mice and their non-transgenic littermates using gene expression array.