[“To my knowledge this is the first example, in any animal, of epigenetic transmission of a simple memory for a specific perceptual stimulus. The broader implications for the neuroscience of memory and to evolutionary biology in general could be paradigm shifting and unprecedented.”]<\/p>\n
Brian Dias, a postdoctoral fellow in Kerry Ressler\u2019s lab at Emory University, had reported that mice\u00a0inherit specific smell memories\u00a0from their fathers \u2014 even when the offspring have never experienced that smell before,\u00a0and\u00a0even when they\u2019ve never met their father. What\u2019s more, their children\u00a0are born with the same specific memory.<\/p>\n
This was a big, surprising claim, causing many genetics experts to do a double-take, as I discovered from a subsequent flurry of Tweets. \u201cCrazy Lamarkian shit,\u201d quipped Laura Hercher, referring to Lamarckian\u00a0inheritance, the largely discredited theory that says an organism can pass down learned behaviors or traits to its offspring. \u201cMy instinct is deep skepticism, but will have to wait for paper to come out,\u201d wrote Kevin Mitchell. \u201cIf true, would be revolutionary.\u201d<\/p>\n
The paper is out today in Nature Neuroscience, showing what I reported before as well as the beginnings of an epigenetic explanation. (Epigenetics usually refers to chemical changes that affect gene expression without altering the DNA code).<\/p>\n