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Lamarck revisited: epigenetic inheritance of ancestral odor fear conditioning

Nature Neuroscience volume 17, pages 2–4 (2014)Cite this article

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A study shows that when mice are taught to fear an odor, both their offspring and the next generation are born fearing it. The gene for an olfactory receptor activated by the odor is specifically demethylated in the germ line and the olfactory circuits for detecting the odor are enhanced.

Odor sensitivity has been a critical driving force in evolution. Specific recognition of distinct odors is important for the survival of the species and enables individuals to escape predators, identify nutritional resources and gain protection from hazards, as well as form social bonds and choose mates. A good example of odor sensitivity that is critical for survival through avoidance of predators is the rodent fear response to fox urine1. Predator odor selectivity is thought to be generated during evolution through natural selection of sequence variations in the olfactory receptors encoding new odor selectivities. A report by Dias and Ressler2 in this issue of Nature Neuroscience offers an additional, nongenetic mechanism for this quintessentially evolutionary affair.

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Figure 1: Model for epigenetic inheritance of odor fear conditioning.

Katie Vicari

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  1. Moshe Szyf is in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.,

    Moshe Szyf

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  1. Moshe Szyf
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Correspondence to Moshe Szyf.

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Szyf, M. Lamarck revisited: epigenetic inheritance of ancestral odor fear conditioning. Nat Neurosci 17, 2–4 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3603

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