Epigenetic information can be inherited over multiple generations, which is termed as transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (TEI). Although the mechanism(s) of TEI remains poorly understood, noncoding RNAs have been demonstrated to play important roles in TEI. In many eukaryotes, double‐stranded RNA (dsRNA) triggers the silencing of cellular nucleic acids that exhibit sequence homology to the dsRNA via a process termed RNA interference (RNAi). In Caenorhabditis elegans, dsRNA‐directed gene silencing is heritable and can persist for a number of generations after its initial induction. During the process, small RNAs and the RNAi machinery mediate the initiation, transmission and re‐establishment of the gene silencing state. In this review, we summarise our current understanding of the underlying mechanism(s) of transgenerational inheritance of RNAi in C. elegans and propose that multiple RNAi machineries may act cooperatively to promote TEI.

中文翻译：

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不同的核和细胞质机制共同促进了秀丽隐杆线虫中 RNAi 的遗传

表观遗传信息可以遗传多代，称为跨代表观遗传（TEI）。尽管 TEI 的机制仍然知之甚少，但已证明非编码 RNA 在 TEI 中发挥重要作用。在许多真核生物中，双链 RNA (dsRNA) 通过称为 RNA 干扰 (RNAi) 的过程触发与 dsRNA 具有序列同源性的细胞核酸的沉默。在秀丽隐杆线虫中，dsRNA 指导的基因沉默是可遗传的，并且在初始诱导后可以持续数代。在此过程中，小 RNA 和 RNAi 机制介导了基因沉默状态的启动、传递和重建。在这次审查中，