Health depends on dad's sperm

• Autores: Helen Thomson
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3069, 2016, pág. 8
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Chemical switches attached to the genomes of sperm--known as epigenetic tags--have been shown to alter the next generation for the first time. The discovery could explain how a father's experiences may later affect gene activity in their offspring, a vital step towards improving health and fertility. Now Jerome Jullien at the Wellcome Trust CRITIC Gurdon Institute in Cambridge and his colleagues have shown for the first time that sperm epigenetic tags do change gene expression in embryos--and that these tags are essential for healthy development. They made their discovery by comparing frog embryos made from sperm with those made from spermatids, a type of sperm precursor cell