Summary
The experiences of our ancestors can affect our own biology. Studies in animals and humans have shown that stress or environmental exposure can be epigenetically encoded in genomes and inherited for multiple generations. But it is still not clear how epigenetic inheritance occurs, nor what it might mean for descendants. In cells, genomes are packaged into chromatin, where DNA is wrapped around histone proteins. Modifications are added or removed from histones, controlling how the genome is used for gene expression. The inheritance of chromatin from parent to child is tightly regulated and invo
