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Published online 20 November 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.1240
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Obesity linked to grandparental diet
Mice eating high-fat foods confer changes on at least two subsequent generations.
You are what you eat, and so are your progeny and, perhaps, your progeny's progeny — at least, if you're a mouse.
According to research presented at the Society for Neuroscience's 38th annual meeting in Washington DC held from 15–19 November, mice fed on a high-fat diet throughout their pregnancies and suckling had offspring that were larger than normal — a trait that was also passed on to their offspring's offspring.
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"Epigenetic changes ? biochemical modifications (such as methylation) that affect the functioning of DNA without altering its nucleotide sequence ? can be induced by environmental factors and can be inherited." -Perhaps of a bit of credit to the Lamarckian take on evolution....
It is kind of funny that this study comes so close to the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin! I mean this would give strong support of Lamark's theory ... I'm sincerely quite skeptic about this and would wait for further investigations to confirm these findings ... maybe all this will turn out to be something like water's memory ...
I partially agree to the pattern of inheritance regarding Epigenetics as i have come across the same thing regarding nucleosomes inheritance also.But,I would also like to wait for further investigations.