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Updated: Aug 27, 2025

Author Spotlight: RNAi Inheritance and ChIP in C. elegans
Published on: May 5, 2023
Sperm-inherited H3K27me3 epialleles are transmitted transgenerationally in cis
Kiyomi Raye Kaneshiro1, Thea A Egelhofer1, Andreas Rechtsteiner1
1Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064.
Abstract:
The transmission of chromatin states from parent cells to daughter cells preserves cell-specific transcriptional states and thus cell identity through cell division. The mechanism that underpins this process is not fully understood. The role that chromatin states serve in transmitting gene expression information across generations via sperm and oocytes is even less understood. Here, we utilized a model in which Caenorhabditis elegans sperm and oocyte alleles were inherited in different states of the repressive mark H3K27me3. This resulted in the alleles achieving different transcriptional states within the nuclei of offspring. Using this model, we showed that sperm alleles inherited without H3K27me3 were sensitive to up-regulation in offspring somatic and germline tissues, and tissue context determined which genes were up-regulated. We found that the subset of sperm alleles that were up-regulated in offspring germlines retained the H3K27me3(-) state and were transmitted to grandoffspring as H3K27me3(-) and up-regulated epialleles, demonstrating that H3K27me3 can serve as a transgenerational epigenetic carrier in C. elegans.
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