The Weismann barrier is not as impervious as previously thought—this is what epidemiological and animal studies in epigenetics suggest. What does it mean for ethics? Does inter- and transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, if it is definitively demonstrated in humans, create an epigenetic responsibility towards future generations? The question of potential long-term responsibilities disrupts our traditional ethics frameworks...

Epigenetics has sometimes been described as a “buzzword” or a “fashion.”  A quick look on the web suggests that epigenetics is, indeed, very popular. What uses does the public make of epigenetics?  Are these uses true to the science or are they complete science-fiction?  These are the questions that we tackle in this shared project between US and French scientists. The project has two sides of resource-building and analysis. W...

What constitutes “human reproduction” is under negotiation as its biology, social nature, and cultural valences are increasingly perceived as bound up in environmental issues. This paper maps the growing overlap between formerly rather separate domains of reproductive politics and environmental politics, examining three interrelated areas. The first is the emergence of an intersectional environmental reproductive justice frame...

How organisms retain a memory of ancestral environmental exposure is a phenomenon that is still poorly understood. Recently published work by our group and others, regarding environmentally induced transgenerational effects, have identified an array of mechanisms, with a particular focus on histone modifications, that shed some light on the underlying epigenetic processes driving long-term generational effects.

https://www.ncbi...

Bruce Blumberg and colleagues describe how exposure to the obesogen tributyltin (TBT), an antifouling agent added to paint, alters the way mice metabolize their diet. This effect is detectable in the 3rd and 4th generations following the initial exposure and correlates with epigenetic changes. Despite its ban, and due to its persistent nature , TBT is still  widely found in the environment. Some countries also have not consist...

A paper recently published in Current Biology examines how some mobile element in the genomes of animals have the ability to mimic components of germ cells in order to become transmitted across generations. Read the paper here:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982217310746?via%3Dihub