Intergenerational impact of violence exposure during pregnancy on epigenetic change

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Trauma that is experienced by a pregnant woman can affect the physiology of her offspring, sometimes decades into the future. The impact of trauma may be caused by changes to our genome that alter the way in which genes are expressed and proteins are produced. This project will test the hypothesis that violence experienced by a pregnant woman may produce changes in the genomes of the mother, her child, and her grandchild. This study is a global, interdiscriplinary collaboration that will provide a better understanding of how humans adapt to adversity, and how these adaptations may persist far into the future, long after the adverse conditions have ended. The results of this research will be communicated to the public and scientific community through presentations and publications, student exchanges, and outreach activities to local communities and policymakers. This project will train one postdoctoral assistant and 3-4 undergraduate students, many of whom are from groups underrepresented in STEM research fields.In this study, a unique set of biological samples have been collected and will be assayed for changes to the genome, specifically the addition of DNA methyl groups that can change the expression of a gene. Three generation families have been recruited who have been exposed to violence in different generations; specifically, grandmothers in group 1 were exposed while pregnant, mothers in group 2 were exposed while pregnant, and group 3 are control familes who were not exposed. Biological samples from the mothers and two children (one child was exposed in utero and one child will serve as a control) will be analyzed using cutting-edge methods to assay for DNA methylation changes. Associations between changes to DNA methylation and exposure to violence in each generation will be tested, while controlling for age at time of exposure, age at sample collection, sex, and additional adverse exposures, such as lack of food or water or medical care.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.