Environmental Transgenerational Epigenetics: Effects on Fertility and Offspring Health

The effects of environmentally induced epigenetic transgenerational inheritance on the fertility and health of organisms' offspring are reviewed. Previously, researchers have demonstrated a wide variety of environmental toxicants can promote an increase in disease and pathology in future generations through epigenetic transgenerational inheritance. These epigenetic alterations are transmitted through the germ line to future generations, influencing subsequent generations fertility and health. These epigenetic alterations provide a molecular mechanism for the decrease in fertility rates of subsequent generations and are associated with increases in disease. The increase in disease and pathology that humans are currently experiencing on a global scale appears to in part come from ancestral exposures and epigenetics. Although we may not be able to fix the problem, advancements in assisted reproduction and epigenetic disease biomarker tests to diagnose patients disease susceptibility will allow medical care providers to be more proactive in the preventative medicine treatment to reduce the frequency of disease-related ailments prior to the onset of the pathology.