scholarly journals Alterations in sperm long RNA contribute to the epigenetic inheritance of the effects of postnatal trauma

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Gapp ◽  
G. van Steenwyk ◽  
P.L. Germain ◽  
W. Matsushima ◽  
K.L.M. Rudolph ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Germ Cells ◽  
Small Rna ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Epigenetic Inheritance ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Psychiatric Diseases ◽  
Direct Link ◽  
Trauma Symptoms ◽  
Epigenetic Factors ◽  
Glucose Response

AbstractPsychiatric diseases have a strong heritable component known to not be restricted to DNA sequence-based genetic inheritance alone but to also involve epigenetic factors in germ cells 1,2. Initial evidence suggested that sperm RNA is causally linked 2,3 to the transmission of symptoms induced by traumatic experiences. Here we show that alterations in long RNA in sperm contribute to the inheritance of specific trauma symptoms. Injection of long RNA fraction from sperm of males exposed to postnatal trauma recapitulates the effects on food intake, glucose response to insulin and risk-taking in adulthood whereas the small RNA fraction alters body weight and behavioral despair. Alterations in long RNA are maintained after fertilization, suggesting a direct link between sperm and embryo RNA.

scholarly journals Symposium summary: Epigenetic inheritance—impact for biology and society 26–28 August 2019, Zurich, Switzerland

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Lazar-Contes ◽  
Martin Roszkowski ◽  
Deepak K Tanwar ◽  
Isabelle M Mansuy
Keyword(s):  
Functional Genomics ◽  
Dna Sequence ◽  
Germ Cells ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Epigenetic Inheritance ◽  
Epigenetic Changes ◽  
Epigenetic Factors ◽  
Nature Versus Nurture ◽  
Poster Sessions ◽  
Health And Disease

Abstract The concept of epigenetic inheritance proposes a new and unconventional way to think about heredity in health and disease, at the interface between genetics and the environment. Epigenetic inheritance is a form of biological inheritance not encoded in the DNA sequence itself but mediated by epigenetic factors. Because epigenetic factors can be modulated by the environment, they can relay this information to the genome and modify its activity consequentially. If epigenetic changes induced by environmental exposure are present in the germline and persist in germ cells during development until conception, they have the potential to transfer the traces of ancestral exposure to the progeny. This form of heredity relates to the extremely important question of nature versus nurture and how much of our own make-up is genetically or epigenetically determined, a question that remains largely unresolved. Because it questions the dominant dogma of genetics and brings a paradigm shift in sciences, it has to creating strong bridges between disciplines and provide solid causal evidence to be firmly established. The second edition of a conference fully dedicated to epigenetic inheritance was held in August 2019 in Zurich, Switzerland. This symposium titled ‘Epigenetic inheritance: impact for biology and society’ (http://www.epigenetic-inheritance-zurich.ethz.ch), gathered experts in the field of epigenetic inheritance to discuss the concept and pertinent findings, exchange views and expertise about models and methods, and address challenges raised by this new discipline. The symposium offered a mix of invited lectures and short talks selected from abstracts, poster sessions and a workshop ‘Meet the experts: Q&A’. A tour of a local omics facility the Functional Genomics Center Zurich was also offered to interested participants. Additional comments and impressions were shared by attendees on Twitter #eisz19 during and after the symposium. This summary provides an overview of the different sessions and talks and describes the main findings presented.

The Role of Traumatic Childhood Experiences in Predicting a Disposition to Risk-Taking and Aggression in Turkish University Students

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 1998-2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hatice Odacı ◽  
Çiğdem Berber Çelik
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Emotional Abuse ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Emotional Neglect ◽  
Childhood Trauma Questionnaire ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Adolescent Risk ◽  
And Gender

The purpose of this research was to determine whether or not traumatic childhood experiences in childhood predict a disposition to risk-taking and aggression among university students. The participants consisted of 851 students: 477 (56.1%) females and 374 (43.9%) males attending various faculties at the Karadeniz Technical University in Turkey. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Adolescent Risk-Taking Scale, Aggression Questionnaire, and Personal Information Form were used for data collection. The analysis results revealed a positive correlation between traumatic experiences (physical, sexual, emotional maltreatment, and emotional neglect) and risk-taking and aggression. Physical and sexual abuse and gender are significant predictors of risk-taking. Physical abuse and gender are some of the predictors of aggression. Another finding from the study is that physical and emotional abuse and emotional neglect vary by gender. This study concludes that exposure to traumatic experiences in childhood prepares the foundation for negative behaviors in adulthood.

scholarly journals Intergenerational metabolic priming by sperm piRNAs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adelheid Lempradl ◽  
Unn Kugelberg ◽  
Mary Iconomou ◽  
Ian Beddows ◽  
Daniel Nätt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Small Rna ◽  
Small Rnas ◽  
Target Gene ◽  
Epigenetic Inheritance ◽  
Mature Sperm ◽  
Transcriptional Reprogramming ◽  
Complementary Sequences ◽  
Specific Manner ◽  
Dietary Sugar ◽  
Pirna Pathway

Preconception parental environment can reproducibly program offspring phenotype without altering the DNA sequence, yet the mechanisms underpinning this epigenetic inheritance remains elusive. Here, we demonstrate the existence of an intact piRNA-pathway in mature Drosophila sperm and show that pathway modulation alters offspring gene transcription in a sequence-specific manner. We map a dynamic small RNA content in developing sperm and find that the mature sperm carry a highly distinct small RNA cargo. By biochemical pulldown, we identify a small RNA subset bound directly to piwi protein. And, we show that piRNA-pathway controlled sperm small RNAs are linked to target gene repression in offspring. Critically, we find that full piRNA-pathway dosage is necessary for the intergenerational metabolic and transcriptional reprogramming events triggered by high paternal dietary sugar. These data provide a direct link between regulation of endogenous mature sperm small RNAs and transcriptional programming of complementary sequences in offspring. Thus, we identify a novel mediator of paternal intergenerational epigenetic inheritance.

scholarly journals The language of wounds and scars in Edwige Danticat's "The Dew Breaker" : a case in trauma symptoms and the recovery process

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aitor Ibarrola-Armendáriz
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Trauma Symptoms ◽  
American Writer ◽  
The Past ◽  
Difficult Time ◽  
Haitian American ◽  
To Come

This article examines the representation of a violent and traumatizing past in Edwidge Danticat’s The Dew Breaker (2004), a collection of short stories that depicts the effects of a torturer’s atrocious crimes on the lives of his victims and their descendants. The contribution argues that this work of fiction by the Haitian-American writer is structured upon the principle that traumatic experiences can only become intelligible – and, therefore, “representable” – by considering the severe psychical wounds and scars they leave on the victims. These scars habitually take the form of paranoia, nightmares, ghostly presences, schizophrenia, and “dead spots” that have a very difficult time finding their place in the protagonists’ consciousness and language. In spite of the fragmented and discontinuous character of these representations, the writer manages to unveil the kind of psychological and social dysfunctions that often surface when people have not fully accepted or assimilated aspects of the past that keep itching in their unconscious. However, despite the prevailingly bleak tone of the stories, Danticat still leaves some room for hope and recovery, as many of the victims find ways to come to terms with and overcome those individual and collective dysfunctions.

Positive Caregiving Styles Attenuating Effects of Cumulative Trauma Among Youth Who Commit Sexual Crimes

2020 ◽  
pp. 0306624X2095239
Author(s):  
Jamie Yoder ◽  
Adam Brown ◽  
Melissa Grady ◽  
Rebecca Dillard ◽  
Natalie Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Parenting Styles ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Cumulative Trauma ◽  
Trauma Symptoms ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Sexual Crimes ◽  
Trauma Symptom ◽  
Maternal Caregiving ◽  
Positive Caregiving ◽  
Trauma Symptomatology

Among youth who commit sexual crimes, childhood trauma experiences have been linked to a host of outcomes including trauma symptom expression. Furthermore, research has begun assessing differential rates of cumulative adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) between youth who commit sexual and non-sexual crimes. Yet, few studies have comparatively examined rates of cumulative traumatic events using more robust measures of adversity. There is scant research on outcomes associated cumulative trauma among youth who commit sexual crimes including linkages to trauma symptoms and how positive parenting styles (PCSs) can attenuate in this relationship. This study aims to compare cumulative trauma experiences between youth who commit sexual ( n = 112) and non-sexual crimes ( n = 224). Among youth who commit sexual crimes, we test how PCSs mitigate or moderate the effects of cumulative trauma on trauma symptoms. Results from independent samples t-tests revealed significant group differences on singular and cumulative traumatic experiences, and trauma symptomatology, where youth who commit sexual crimes had higher rates of all. Stepwise linear regressions revealed mitigating effects of maternal PCSs and tests of moderation revealed main and interaction effects, where intermediate positive maternal caregiving styles for youth with higher cumulative trauma were associated with greater trauma symptomatology. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Environmental impacts on sperm and oocyte epigenetics affect embryo cell epigenetics and transcription to promote the epigenetic inheritance of pathology and phenotypic variation

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 102
Author(s):  
Eric Nilsson ◽  
Millissia Ben Maamar ◽  
Michael K. Skinner
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Germ Cell ◽  
Germ Cells ◽  
Subsequent Development ◽  
Epigenetic Inheritance ◽  
Embryo Cell ◽  
Phenotypic Change ◽  
Epigenetic Changes ◽  
Epigenetic Alterations ◽  
Non Coding Rna

Previous studies have demonstrated that exposure to environmental factors can cause epigenetic modifications to germ cells, particularly sperm, to promote epigenetic and transcriptome changes in the embryo. These germ cell and embryo cell epigenetic alterations are associated with phenotypic changes in offspring. Epigenetic inheritance requires epigenetic changes (i.e. epimutations) in germ cells that promote epigenetic and gene expression changes in embryos. The objective of this perspective is to examine the evidence that germ cell epigenome modifications are associated with embryo cell epigenetic and transcriptome changes that affect the subsequent development of all developing somatic cells to promote phenotype change. Various epigenetic changes in sperm, including changes to histone methylation, histone retention, non-coding RNA expression and DNA methylation, have been associated with alterations in embryo cell epigenetics and gene expression. Few studies have investigated this link for oocytes. The studies reviewed herein support the idea that environmentally induced epigenetic changes in germ cells affect alterations in embryo cell epigenetics and transcriptomes that have an important role in the epigenetic inheritance of pathology and phenotypic change.

scholarly journals What Is Lost in the Weismann Barrier?

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Abigail P. Bline ◽  
Anne Le Goff ◽  
Patrick Allard
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Biology ◽  
Health Status ◽  
Germ Cells ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Epigenetic Inheritance ◽  
Environmental Context ◽  
Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance ◽  
Basic Tenet ◽  
Weismann Barrier ◽  
Historical Origins

The Weismann barrier has long been regarded as a basic tenet of biology. However, upon close examination of its historical origins and August Weismann’s own writings, questions arise as to whether such a status is warranted. As scientific research has advanced, the persistence of the concept of the barrier has left us with the same dichotomies Weismann contended with over 100 years ago: germ or soma, gene or environment, hard or soft inheritance. These dichotomies distract from the more important questions we need to address going forward. In this review, we will examine the theories that have shaped Weismann’s thinking, how the concept of the Weismann barrier emerged, and the limitations that it carries. We will contrast the principles underlying the barrier with recent and less recent findings in developmental biology and transgenerational epigenetic inheritance that have profoundly eroded the oppositional view of germline vs. soma. Discarding the barrier allows us to examine the interactive processes and their response to environmental context that generate germ cells in the first place, determine the entirety of what is inherited through them, and set the trajectory for the health status of the progeny they bear.

scholarly journals When is incomplete epigenetic resetting in germ cells favoured by natural selection?

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1811) ◽  
pp. 20150682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Uller ◽  
Sinead English ◽  
Ido Pen
Keyword(s):  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Germ Cells ◽  
Generation Time ◽  
Epigenetic Inheritance ◽  
Environmental Cues ◽  
Heterogeneous Environments ◽  
Stochastic Noise ◽  
Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance ◽  
Early Embryos ◽  
Adaptive Role

Resetting of epigenetic marks, such as DNA methylation, in germ cells or early embryos is not always complete. Epigenetic states may therefore persist, decay or accumulate across generations. In spite of mounting empirical evidence for incomplete resetting, it is currently poorly understood whether it simply reflects stochastic noise or plays an adaptive role in phenotype determination. Here, we use a simple model to show that incomplete resetting can be adaptive in heterogeneous environments. Transmission of acquired epigenetic states prevents mismatched phenotypes when the environment changes infrequently relative to generation time and when maternal and environmental cues are unreliable. We discuss how these results may help to interpret the emerging data on transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in plants and animals.

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