Sunday, April 19, 2015

More Than Just DNA Passed Down Through Generations

          The interest of acquired traits and inheritance has been research for a long time now.  According to Charles Darwin, the driving force to a species evolution are genetic mutations that give them a competitive advantage.  But during the Dutch famine in WWII it was interesting to witness that women who experienced starvation and gave birth had children who were more susceptible of obesity and other diseases, as well as the grandchildren after that.  Witnessing this compelled scientists to look further into inheritance and factors that may impact inheritance.
          Dr. Oliver Hobert, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator for CUMC, conducted animal experiments with some similar results.  But it was studies done by Oded Rechavi, a postdoctoral fellow in Hobert's lab, which found small RNA in roundworms.  Rechavi's test consisted of starving a group of roundworms for 6 days and examining them afterwards.  The test group that was starved developed a specific set of small RNA involved in gene expression but not for coding of proteins.  The small RNA was then analyzed as it was passed down through 3 generations, but since the RNA were developed during starvation it had to be passed down.  It is believed that the small RNA found its way to the germ cell of the roundworm and passed on that way.  Some other observations which are correlations and not directly related to the RNA is that the affected generations had longer life spans than the control group.  Even though these findings have no clinical relevance, it suggests that long term health can be affected by more than just DNA.
          If it can be found in roundworms that something like starvation can impact later generations, it brings to question what are we doing that could impact our further generations?  Is there any way that little changes to our daily life can help or hurt people in the future?  It's good to keep in mind that there is so much more we can learn about the human body and the inheritance of genes.

Original Article
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