Worm experiments reveal how epigenetic effects persist across generations

AI Summary

Experiments in worms show that epigenetic effects can persist across generations. Epigenetics involves changes in gene activity without altering the underlying DNA sequence, and the findings offer insight into how biological traits may be inherited.

Every cell in an organism contains the same DNA, which carries all the instructions needed for it to function. Yet cells do not all use the same genes: A nerve cell, for example, does not activate the same genes as a muscle cell. Epigenetics refers to the mechanisms that allow gene activity to be modulated without changing the DNA sequence.