A University of Otago study has found the memory in the form
of 'DNA methylation' is preserved between generations of fish, in contrast to
humans where this is almost entirely erased.
DNA methylation encodes additional information, and is only
just being understood - similar to discovering handwritten notes in the margins
of the book saying which pages are the most important.
"Methylation sits on top of DNA and is used to control
which genes are turned on and off. It also helps to define cellular identity
and function. In humans and other mammals, DNA methylation is erased at each
generation; however, we found that global erasure of DNA methylation memory
does not occur at all in the fish we studied," author of the study Anatomy
PhD student Oscar Ortega said.
Dr Tim Hore, research team leader and senior lecturer, at
Otago's Department of Anatomy, said the study's findings provide new avenues
for scientists to study how the memory of events in one generation, can be
passed on to the next.
"Mammalian biologists have searched long and hard to
find reliable examples of where altered DNA methylation patterns are passed on
to subsequent generations; yet only a handful have been verified in repeated
studies. However, unlike humans, DNA methylation is not erased at each
generation in at least some fish. So, we think intergenerational memory
transfer through DNA methylation could be much more common in fish," Dr
Hore said.
Also published in Nature Communications is a complementary
study from the Garvin Institute (Australia), confirming the Otago observations.
It took three years to find fish can transmit life
experience through their DNA and says more in-depth studies are to come.
Fish have better memories than humans
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