Dietary effects on the sperm epigenome

项目摘要/摘要 性状从父母传给后代是人类生命的普遍特征 地球，并对其内部运作和进化产生根本后果。 表观遗传学领域的最新结果使一度声名狼藉的 父母的环境可能会对他们的表型产生影响 后代。后天习得性状的遗传(即环境信息的传递 代代相传)通常被称为“拉马克”式的遗传 证明它的存在将极大地改变我们对进化的看法， 人类流行病学研究是如何进行的。我已经使用了微阵列方法 确定父系环境对后代表型的跨代影响 在老鼠身上，将父亲的低蛋白饮食与后代的胆固醇代谢联系起来。 此外，我们已经证明这种信息是在精子中携带的。 在这个项目中，我建议系统地描述 环境导向的特征在老鼠身上是遗传的。我们将进行全基因组 分析精子中的表观遗传信息载体，从而确定饮食导向 精子表观基因组的变化。此外，使用基于 体外受精，我们将系统地识别表观遗传标记 受精。这些研究将对以下领域产生革命性的影响 从进化到流行病学。

Project Summary/Abstract The inheritance of traits from parent to offspring is a universal characteristic of life on earth, and has fundamental consequences for its inner workings, and for evolution. Recent results in the field of epigenetics have resurrected the once-discredited possibility that the environment of parents could have an effect on the phenotype of their offspring. Inheritance of acquired characters (ie passage of environmental information from one generation to the next) is often called "Lamarckian" inheritance, and demonstration of its existence would drastically alter how we think about evolution, and how human epidemiological studies are carried out. I have used a microarray approach to identify transgenerational effects of the paternal environment on offspring phenotype in mice, linking paternal low protein diet to cholesterol metabolism in offspring. Furthermore, we have shown that this information is carried in sperm. In this project I propose to systematically characterize the mechanism by which environmentally-directed traits are inherited in mice. We will carry out whole-genome analysis of epigenetic information carriers in sperm, thereby identifying diet-directed changes in the sperm epigenome. In addition, using an innovative approach based on in vitro fertilization, we will systematically identify epigenetic marks that persist after fertilization. These studies will have a revolutionary impact on fields ranging from evolution to epidemiology.