Geneticists at Stanford University recently published the results of an experiment demonstrating that acquired traits can be passed along to offspring.
Scientists had previously rejected the notion that offspring could inherit characteristics that a parent organism developed during their lifetime.
The Stanford scientists demonstrate that an organism’s behavior and environment are factors that do influence the genes it passes along to offspring.
The Stanford epigenetics study focused on enhancing longevity in worms through manipulating the levels of the longevity-related enzyme SET2.
The result was in increase in the life spans of offspring parents enzymes were manipulated in a manner that affected the genes they would pass along.
"I think this is a fundamentally important finding," says Matt Kaeberlein of the University of Washington in Seattle, who studies molecular mechanisms of aging. "It demonstrates for the first time that aging can be influenced by epigenetic changes that occurred in prior generations."
Source: Scientific American
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