Starvation and DNA

[packman]

Study finds mothers who, for one reason or another, are starved pass on a mechanism called "small RNA inheritance" held to be responsible for passing on the memory of starvation. The result, children born to such mothers live longer up to three generations.

I remember studies that showed mice which were on very low calorie diets bordering on starvation, lived longer that mice that had access to unlimited food.

The same study showed that the effects of marijuana were also able to span three generations, with the pups of mice exposed to the drug displaying less motivation to seek the reward of “highly tasty food - in other words, anything will do if you're high on pot be it pizza or rice pudding.


http://crooksandliars.com/2014/08/how-memory-starvation-stays-written-dna

[moriah]

1. Studies find *worms* starved pass on those.

I want to figure out how those "small RNA inheritance" molecules get into the sperm and egg. (Edit: if starving killed off any of the worms at all used in the study, the enhanced lifespan in later generations could be far more easily explained by selection, not environmental inheritance.)

[packman]

2. Good question

Might agree with you about selection;however, external influences can certainly impact DNA/RNA formation (radiation quickly pops into mind). Starvation may influence the DNA/RNA strands in ways not explained in the article.