Opening Paragraphs: New research has provided evidence for ‘environmental inheritance’, a radical theory of transgenerational genetic adaptation proposed by Professor Marcus Pembrey of the Institute of Child Health, UCL in the mid 1990’s The latest evidence challenges accepted thinking on genetic inheritance, suggesting that historic events can contribute to some common modern illnesses . The research, published by the Children of the 90s study based at the University of Bristol in collaboration with Umeå University, Sweden, could have far-reaching implications for our understanding of modern health epidemics – such as obesity or cardiovascular disease. Conventionally scientists believe that how we develop as adults depends on two factors - the genes (DNA) we inherit from our parents, and the environmental influences, such as diet, lifestyle, exposure to pollution from conception onwards Professor Marcus Pembrey, who is also head of Genetics at Children of the 90s, says that over the long term, the process of Darwinian evolution by random errors in DNA followed by natural selection ensures that the human race adapts to changes in our environment. But it takes very many generations.

Abstract Environmental effects on phenotype can be mediated by epigenetic modifications. The epigenetic state of the murine Avy allele is highly variable, and determines phenotypic effects that vary in a mosaic spectrum that can be shifted by in utero exposure to methyl donor supplementation. We have asked if methyl donor supplementation affects the germ-line epigenetic state of the Avy allele. We find that the somatic epigenetic state of Avy is affected by in utero methyl donor supplementation only when the allele is paternally contributed. Exposure to methyl donor supplementation during midgestation shifts Avy phenotypes not only in the mice exposed as fetuses, but in their offspring. This finding indicates that methyl donors can change the epigenetic state of the Avy allele in the germ line, and that the altered state is retained through the epigenetic resetting that takes place in gametogenesis and embryogenesis. Thus a mother's diet may have an enduring influence on succeeding generations, independent of later changes in diet. Although other reports have suggested such heritable epigenetic changes, this study demonstrates that a specific mammalian gene can be subjected to germ-line epigenetic change. agouti | inheritance