Mechanism for stress-induced epigenetic inheritance uncovered in new study
Thursday, June 23, 2011 - 16:30
in Biology & Nature
Researchers have uncovered a mechanism by which the effects of stress in the fly species Drosophila are inherited epigenetically over many generations through changes to the structure of chromatin, the material that makes up the cell nucleus. The results highlight the role of the transcription factor dATF-2 in chromatin assembly, marking a major advance in our understanding of non-Mendelian inheritance.