Epigenetic Mechanisms of Transmission of Metabolic Disease across Generations

Publication date: 7 March 2017
Source:Cell Metabolism, Volume 25, Issue 3
Author(s): Vicencia Micheline Sales, Anne C. Ferguson-Smith, Mary-Elizabeth Patti
Both human and animal studies indicate that environmental exposures experienced during early life can robustly influence risk for adult disease. Moreover, environmental exposures experienced by parents during either intrauterine or postnatal life can also influence the health of their offspring, thus initiating a cycle of disease risk across generations. In this Perspective, we focus on epigenetic mechanisms in germ cells, including DNA methylation, histone modification, and non-coding RNAs, which collectively may provide a non-genetic molecular legacy of prior environmental exposures and influence transcriptional regulation, developmental trajectories, and adult disease risk in offspring.

Teaser

Sales et al. provide perspective on how environmental exposures, particularly those experienced during intrauterine life, can influence metabolic disease risk in adulthood. Moreover, both early-life exposures and metabolic disease in adult parents can modulate epigenetic regulation in germ cells, thus providing a non-genetic molecular legacy to influence the health of subsequent generations.


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