Stresses in your life may affect future generations

摘要

For the first time, genes chemically silenced as a result of stress have been shown to stay switched off in eggs and sperm, so the effect is passed down to the next generation. The finding is based on DNA scans of developing mouse eggs and sperm. It backs up mounting but indirect evidence, from multigenerational studies, that the genetic impacts of environmental factors such as smoking, diet, famine and childhood stress can be passed on through a process called epigenetic inheritance. Many mainstream geneticists had considered this an impossibility.