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Updated: May 10, 2026

Using Caenorhabditis elegans for Studying Trans- and Multi-Generational Effects of Toxicants
Published on: July 29, 2019
Transgenerational transmission of environmental information in C. elegans
Adam Klosin1,2, Eduard Casas3, Cristina Hidalgo-Carcedo1,2
1EMBL-CRG Systems Biology Unit, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), European Molecular Biology Organization, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Abstract:
The environment experienced by an animal can sometimes influence gene expression for one or a few subsequent generations. Here, we report the observation that a temperature-induced change in expression from a Caenorhabditis elegans heterochromatic gene array can endure for at least 14 generations. Inheritance is primarily in cis with the locus, occurs through both oocytes and sperm, and is associated with altered trimethylation of histone H3 lysine 9 (H3K9me3) before the onset of zygotic transcription. Expression profiling reveals that temperature-induced expression from endogenous repressed repeats can also be inherited for multiple generations. Long-lasting epigenetic memory of environmental change is therefore possible in this animal.
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