42
votes
Sperm may pass traits via RNA, influenced by the father's life
Link information
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- Title
- How Dad's Fitness May Be Packaged and Passed Down in Sperm RNA | Quanta Magazine
- Published
- Dec 22 2025
- Word count
- 3121 words
Relevant XKCD
Relevant XKCDs restore my faith in the internet
Always thought that DNA is the foundation, the base, the general scaffolding and architectural plans. RNA is the building blocks, the materials, the engineering and actual construction. Design vs Production.
I've long thought that natural selection isn't a sufficient explanation and that epigenetics would be where we'd find more answers. But I'm not a researcher so I can only muse and wait.
This may be the beginning of breakthroughs that will give us a (more) complete picture of how organisms can evolve/adapt at a much faster rate than the traditional DNA model can explain.
I mean even if this effect is real, it’s very subtle. Part of the reason natural selection is the dominant explanation is that there is little statistical evidence for heritability of non-genetic traits.
I notice that in moments of extreme parenting stress I'm more likely to fall back on the techniques I was subject to as a child.
It would make sense that certain behaviors and even metabolic traits pass down just courtesy of tradition and shared environment. Lead in the water, same bacteria in the food, etc. But it would also make sense that it would be damn near impossible to study with any sort of objective standard.
My wife can use a mouse with either hand equally well because her dad was a lefty. It freaks people out, and our kids get similiar doses of that kind of thing because they're being randomly taught to do things with either hand.
Genetic or Environment? Binaries are always boring, so both.
Just as we have figured out how to do genetic engineering in only the last decade, are there any major efforts into modifying epigenetic traits? Could be a monumental discovery.
The nickname for drugs that target epigenetic expression is "epi-drugs". I think we've only scratched the surface in terms of what's possible there.
I worked in a plant lab during college and they do the same thing with plants, there’s optimum environments you can put the plants in which will change how the fruit they produce looks, tastes, how nutritious it is, etc and these changes can be measured genetically so you can know the kinda fruit you’ll get from a slow growing plant before it actually fruits.
Cool shit