Lazar-Contes Irina, Roszkowski Martin, Tanwar Deepak K, Mansuy Isabelle M
Laboratory of Neuroepigenetics, Medical Faculty of the University of Zurich and Department of Health Science and Technology of the ETH Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Environ Epigenet. 2020 May 6;6(1):dvaa004. doi: 10.1093/eep/dvaa004. eCollection 2020 Jan.
The concept of epigenetic inheritance proposes a new and unconventional way to think about heredity in health and disease, at the interface between genetics and the environment. Epigenetic inheritance is a form of biological inheritance not encoded in the DNA sequence itself but mediated by epigenetic factors. Because epigenetic factors can be modulated by the environment, they can relay this information to the genome and modify its activity consequentially. If epigenetic changes induced by environmental exposure are present in the germline and persist in germ cells during development until conception, they have the potential to transfer the traces of ancestral exposure to the progeny. This form of heredity relates to the extremely important question of nature versus nurture and how much of our own make-up is genetically or epigenetically determined, a question that remains largely unresolved. Because it questions the dominant dogma of genetics and brings a paradigm shift in sciences, it has to creating strong bridges between disciplines and provide solid causal evidence to be firmly established. The second edition of a conference fully dedicated to epigenetic inheritance was held in August 2019 in Zurich, Switzerland. This symposium titled 'Epigenetic inheritance: impact for biology and society' (http://www.epigenetic-inheritance-zurich.ethz.ch), gathered experts in the field of epigenetic inheritance to discuss the concept and pertinent findings, exchange views and expertise about models and methods, and address challenges raised by this new discipline. The symposium offered a mix of invited lectures and short talks selected from abstracts, poster sessions and a workshop 'Meet the experts: Q&A'. A tour of a local omics facility the Functional Genomics Center Zurich was also offered to interested participants. Additional comments and impressions were shared by attendees on Twitter #eisz19 during and after the symposium. This summary provides an overview of the different sessions and talks and describes the main findings presented.
表观遗传继承的概念提出了一种全新且非常规的方式，用于在遗传学与环境的交叉领域思考健康与疾病中的遗传问题。表观遗传继承是一种并非由DNA序列本身编码，而是由表观遗传因素介导的生物遗传形式。由于表观遗传因素可被环境调节，它们能够将此信息传递给基因组并相应地改变其活性。如果由环境暴露诱导的表观遗传变化存在于生殖系中，并在发育过程中持续存在于生殖细胞中直至受孕，那么它们就有可能将祖先暴露的痕迹传递给后代。这种遗传形式涉及到天性与教养这一极其重要的问题，以及我们自身构成中有多少是由基因或表观遗传决定的，而这个问题在很大程度上仍未得到解决。由于它对遗传学的主流教条提出了质疑，并在科学界带来了范式转变，因此必须在各学科之间建立强有力的桥梁，并提供确凿的因果证据才能得以稳固确立。2019年8月，一场完全专注于表观遗传继承的会议的第二版在瑞士苏黎世举行。这次题为“表观遗传继承：对生物学和社会的影响”（http://www.epigenetic-inheritance-zurich.ethz.ch）的研讨会汇聚了表观遗传继承领域的专家，以讨论这一概念及相关发现，就模型和方法交流观点与专业知识，并应对这一新学科带来的挑战。研讨会提供了特邀讲座以及从摘要中选出的短报告、海报展示环节和一个“与专家见面：问答”工作坊。还为感兴趣的参与者安排了参观当地的组学设施——苏黎世功能基因组学中心。研讨会期间及之后，与会者在推特#eisz19上分享了更多评论和感受。本总结概述了不同的会议环节和报告，并描述了所展示的主要发现。
