Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Of giraffes' necks and the inheritance of chromatin states

Nature Genetics volume 49, pages 821–823 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

New work reports that both derepressed and hyper-repressed chromatin states in animals can be transmitted to progeny for many generations. Transmission depends on genomic architecture and histone modifications.

Can acquired phenotypes, not encoded in the DNA sequence, be inherited and transmitted across generations? Some studies have reported transmission of epigenetic states for a few generations—in some cases, through mechanisms mediated by small RNAs. Two new reports, one using Drosophila melanogaster1 and the other Caenorhabditis elegans2, now show that epigenetic states can be transmitted by chromatin mechanisms for many generations, possibly indefinitely.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: A chromosome architecture that might facilitate germline transmission of an epigenetic state.

References

  1. Ciabrelli, F. et al. Nat. Genet. 49, 876–886 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Klosin, A., Casas, E., Hidalgo-Carcedo, C., Vavouri, T. & Lehner, B. Science 356, 320–323 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Seong, K.-H., Li, D., Shimizu, H., Nakamura, R. & Ishii, S. Cell 145, 1049–1061 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Öst, A. et al. Cell 159, 1352–1364 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Chandler, V.L. Cell 128, 641–645 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Kassis, J.A. Adv. Genet. 46, 421–438 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Laprell, F., Finkl, K. & Müller, J. Science 356, 85–88 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Coleman, R.T. & Struhl, G. Science http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aai8236 (2017).

  9. Hug, C.B., Grimaldi, A.G., Kruse, K. & Vaquerizas, J.M. Cell 169, 216–228 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Pirrotta, V. & Li, H.-B. Curr. Opin. Genet. Develop. 22, 101–109 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vincenzo Pirrotta is in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA.,

    Vincenzo Pirrotta

Authors
  1. Vincenzo Pirrotta
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vincenzo Pirrotta.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Pirrotta, V. Of giraffes' necks and the inheritance of chromatin states. Nat Genet 49, 821–823 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3881

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3881

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing