Functional Consequences Paternal Preconceptual Alcohol Consumption

Alcohol is the most harmful drug of abuse, making alcoholism a major economic and public health crisis. Unsurprisingly, this has led to the majority of the neurobiological research on alcohol focusing on its direct effects on an individual, including those affected by foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs). However, research has shown that heavy paternal drinking predicts earlier and heavier adolescent drinking in the offspring, accompanied by other behavioural and molecular changes. While alcohol use disorder (AUD) is highly heritable, research on genetic variants alone does not sufficiently account for AUD risk and the FASDs-like symptoms seen in offspring of alcoholic fathers. Recently, there has been an increase in appreciation of the importance of epigenetic mechanisms of inheritance, which transfer changes due to parental experiences through the germline. This chapter aims to present an overview of the current knowledge on the inter- and transgenerational impacts of preconceptual paternal alcohol consumption (PPAC), the outcomes seen across generations and the mechanisms by which these changes may be passed down generations.