Environmental memories transmitted from a father to his grandchildren

Thursday, October 8, 2015 - 14:20 in Psychology & Sociology

If you have diabetes, or cancer or even heart problems, maybe you should blame it on your dad's behavior or environment. Or even your grandfather's. That's because, in recent years, scientists have shown that, before his offspring are even conceived, a father's life experiences involving food, drugs, exposure to toxic products and even stress can affect the development and health not only of his children, but even of his grandchildren. But, despite a decade of work in the area, scientists haven't been able to understand much about how this transmission of environmental memories over several generations takes place. Scientists think that they have now found a key part of the molecular puzzle. They have discovered that proteins known as histones, which have attracted relatively little attention until now, may play a crucial role in the process.

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