Transgenerational_epigenetic_inheritance__embryos

Transgenerational epigenetic effects likely have wide-ranging implications for human health, biological adaptation and evolution, however their mechanisms remain poorly understood. We recently demonstrated that a germline nuclear RNA and chromatin pathway maintains gene silencing stably for many generations in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. We hypothesise that transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (TEI) is the consequence of interactions between repetitive and genic parts of the genome mediated by small RNA. Here we investigate the mechanisms underlying TEI, determine if and how TEI provides an environmental memory (“Lamarckism”) . Our questions is: (1) How does the environment shape the transcriptome of the next generation?.