title: Roll over Weismann: extracellular vesicles in the transgenerational transmission of environmental effects.
abstract: The ability of environmental exposures to induce phenotypic change across multiple generations of offspring has gathered an enormous amount of interest in recent years. There are by now many examples of nongenetic transgenerational effects of environmental exposures, covering a broad range of stressors. Available evidence indicates that epigenetic inheritance may mediate at least some of these transgenerational effects, but how environmental exposures induce changes to the epigenome of the germline is unknown. One possibility is that exposed somatic cells can communicate their exposures to the germline to induce a stable change. In this Perspective, we propose that extracellular vesicles shed by somatic cells represent a credible means by which environmental experience could effect a transmissible epigenetic change in the germline, leading to the inheritance of acquired traits.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Structural & Computational Biology Division, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, NSW, 2010, Australia.|Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW, 2052, Australia.
authors.forename: Sally A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Eaton
authors.affiliation: Molecular Structural & Computational Biology Division, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, NSW, 2010, Australia.|Faculty of Science, School of Biotechnology & Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW, 2052, Australia.
authors.forename: Navind
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jayasooriah
authors.affiliation: Brain & Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.|Department of Neuropathology, RPA Hospital, NSW, 2050, Australia.
authors.forename: Michael E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Buckland
authors.affiliation: Center for Genetics, Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, CA 94609, USA.
authors.forename: David Ik
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: Molecular Structural & Computational Biology Division, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, NSW, 2010, Australia.|Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW, 2052, Australia.
authors.forename: Jennifer E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Cropley
authors.affiliation: Molecular Structural & Computational Biology Division, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, NSW, 2010, Australia.|Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW, 2052, Australia.
authors.forename: Catherine M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Suter
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002450:Cell Communication; D004777:Environment; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D000067128:Extracellular Vesicles / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D040582:Inheritance Patterns; D051379:Mice; D009153:Mutagens / Q000633:toxicity*; D010641:Phenotype; D058727:RNA, Small Untranslated / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D009153:Mutagens; D058727:RNA, Small Untranslated
keywords: epigenetic inheritance; exosome; extracellular vesicle; microparticle; shuttle RNA; small noncoding RNA; transgenerational effects