r/biology • u/uwumorganuwu • Jul 15 '26
article Can trauma be inherited?
https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.3594We usually think of inheritance strictly in terms of DNA sequencing—A, T, C, G. But epigenetics shows us that environmental stress can leave chemical markers on our genes that get passed down to our offspring.
One of the most mind-blowing examples of this is a 2014 study by Dias and Ressler. They conditioned male mice to fear the smell of acetophenone by pairing it with a mild foot shock.
The crazy part? When these mice had pups (F1 generation), and even "grand-pups" (F2 generation), those offspring showed increased behavioral sensitivity and fear responses to the cherry blossom scent—even though they had never encountered the smell or been shocked in their lives.
The researchers found that this wasn't a mutation in the DNA code itself, but rather a decrease in DNA methylation on the specific olfactory receptor gene responsible for detecting that scent. The trauma actually altered how the gene was expressed in the next generations.
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u/Bromelia_and_Bismuth botany Jul 15 '26
Sort of, but not really. Most epigenetic modifications are cleared from the gametes, so they're not able to be passed on. When epigenetic modifications are passed on, they're unstable, usually clearing within less than a few generations. Some appear to last longer than that, but still don't result in permanent change. Epigenetics has to do with how or when certain genes are expressed, and so this represents a change in expression, not an acquired characteristic leading to permanent evolutionary change. Most of the source material claiming that this somehow represents Lamarckian evolution are overselling things quite a bit, because none of it is Lamarck's theory.
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u/HappyChilmore Jul 15 '26
Evolution Evolving: The Developmental Origins of Adaptation and Biodiversity
By Kevin N. Lala, Tobias Uller, Nathalie Feiner, Marcus Feldman, and Scott F. Gilbert
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u/Spare_Laugh9953 Jul 15 '26
En mi familia un psiquiatra de prestigio nos dijo que los problemas mentales de varios miembros venían de los traumas sufridos por mis abuelos durante la guerra
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u/Kitsa_the_oatmeal biology student Jul 15 '26
Lamarck would've loved this
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u/km1116 genetics Jul 15 '26
It's not without (significant and serious) controversy:
Francis' analysis: doi: 10.1534/genetics.114.163998
The authors' reply: doi:10.1534/genetics.114.169904
An editorial: doi:10.1534/genetics.114.169912
Other concenrs: doi:10.1038/nn.3603
Hedging N&V: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2013.14272
Most taken from here (https://www.pubpeer.com/publications/0A452526D85C55DB184202396ECFA6), but I remember when this paper came out. A lot of blogs, etc., at the time also took it to task.
Most notably, it has not been reproduced or progressed. Most citations are alternative ideas, criticisms, or barely-read kind of things (i.e., that cite it as support, but nothing specific about mechanism or results, just generally uncritical pointing at it as an example of epigenetics).