{"id":459572,"date":"2025-09-29T04:50:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T04:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/459572\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T04:50:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T04:50:16","slug":"the-surprising-way-parents-transfer-longevity-to-offspring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/459572\/","title":{"rendered":"The Surprising Way Parents Transfer Longevity to Offspring"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Spiral<\/a>Research in C. elegans shows that longevity-related changes in lysosomes can be passed from parents to offspring. The study links lysosomes to the epigenome and reveals a new way epigenetic information is inherited, allowing organisms to transmit stress adaptations without altering DNA. Credit: Shutterstock<\/p>\n

New research shows that roundworms can transmit lifespan-extending traits across generations through histone-based epigenetic inheritance, reshaping our understanding of how non-genetic information is passed down.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the Wang Lab, it\u2019s not unusual for worms to live for a long time.<\/p>\n

HHMI Janelia Research Campus Senior Group Leader Meng Wang and her team study longevity. They\u2019ve shown that by overexpressing an enzyme in the lysosomes of the roundworm C. elegans, they can extend the worm\u2019s life by up to 60 percent.<\/p>\n

But surprisingly, the team found the worms\u2019 progeny without this genetic modification were still living longer than normal. When they crossed their long-lived worms with \u201cwild-type\u201d worms that weren\u2019t overexpressing the enzyme\u2014a routine lab procedure used to wipe clean any genetic manipulations\u2014they saw that the offspring also lived longer than normal worms. Somehow, the longevity markers were being transferred from generation to generation, even four generations later.<\/p>\n

In new research, Wang and her team uncover how changes in the worm\u2019s lysosomes that promote longevity are transferred from cells in its body to its reproductive cells through histones\u2014proteins that play a key role in organizing and regulating DNA. In reproductive cells, these histone messengers cause modifications in the worm\u2019s epigenome\u2014a collection of chemical tags that regulate gene expression\u2014enabling the lysosomal changes to be passed from generation to generation without changing the underlying DNA.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>A tulip-shaped image of a worm shows the intestine on the left and the germline on the right. Green highlights histone H3 lysine 79 dimethylation, while magenta marks cell nuclei stained with DAPI. Credit: Meng Wang<\/p>\n

The findings have repercussions well beyond longevity. Epigenetic modifications can help organisms cope with many different types of environmental stressors\u2014from diet changes to pollutant exposure to psychological stress\u2014and the new work shows how these advantages could be conferred from parents to their offspring.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always think that your inheritance is in the nucleus, within the cell, but now we show that the histone can go from one place to another place, and if that histone carries any modification, that means you are going to transfer the epigenetic information from one cell to another,\u201d Wang says. \u201cIt really provides a mechanism for understanding the transgenerational effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uncovering inheritance<\/p>\n

The researchers found that one type of histone modification\u2014a type of epigenetic change\u2014was elevated in long-lived worms compared to those with normal lifespans. They wanted to see how this modification related to lysosomal changes that promote longevity.<\/p>\n

Using a combination of genetic tools, transcriptomics, and imaging, they found that changes in lysosomal metabolism affecting the worms\u2019 longevity activate a series of processes inside the cell. These actions trigger an increase in a specific histone variant, which is transported from the worm\u2019s somatic or body tissues to its germline or reproductive cells through proteins that deliver nutrients to developing eggs. In the germline, the histone is modified, allowing the information from the lysosome to enter the germline and be passed from parent to child.<\/p>\n

The researchers show that this pathway is activated during fasting, which causes a change in lysosomal metabolism\u2014providing a link from the physiological phenomenon to the changes in the germline.<\/p>\n

The new work adds to a growing body of evidence that lysosomes, once thought to only act as the cell\u2019s recycling centers, also function as a signaling hub to control different processes in the cell and now are shown to affect generations.<\/p>\n

The new research also unveils a new mechanism for transporting information from somatic to germline cells through histones, which could help explain how other types of inherited information are passed from parent to offspring.<\/p>\n

By providing a mechanism for understanding how environmental changes to somatic cells are passed through the germline, the new work could help researchers better understand transgenerational effects that have been previously observed, like the malnutrition of a parent affecting its offspring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now show that the soma and the germline can be connected by the histone and can carry memorable genetic information for generations,\u201d Wang says.<\/p>\n

Reference: \u201cLysosomes signal through the epigenome to regulate longevity across generations\u201d by Qinghao Zhang, Weiwei Dang and Meng C. Wang, 25 September 2025, Science.
DOI: 10.1126\/science.adn8754<\/a><\/p>\n

Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Research in C. elegans shows that longevity-related changes in lysosomes can be passed from parents to offspring. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3846],"tags":[3954,3908,26422,267,154013,4716,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-459572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-cell-biology","9":"tag-dna","10":"tag-epigenetics","11":"tag-genetics","12":"tag-howard-hughes-medical-institute","13":"tag-longevity","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115285788346093035","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}