In recent years it has become evident that RNA interference-related mechanisms can mediate the deposition and transgenerational inheritance of specific chromatin modifications in a truly epigenetic fashion. Rapid progress has been made in identifying the RNAi effector proteins and how they work together to confer long-lasting epigenetic responses, and initial studies hint at potential physiological relevance of such regulation. In this review, we highlight mechanistic studies in model organisms that advance our understanding of how small RNAs trigger long-lasting epigenetic changes in gene expression and we discuss observations that lend support for the idea that small RNAs might participate in mechanisms that trigger epigenetic gene expression changes in response to environmental cues and the effects these could have on population adaptation.

中文翻译：

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表观遗传信息的跨代遗传中的小RNA。

近年来，很明显，RNA干扰相关的机制可以以真正的表观遗传方式介导特定染色质修饰的沉积和跨代遗传。在鉴定RNAi效应子蛋白以及它们如何协同作用以赋予持久的表观遗传学反应方面已取得了迅速的进展，初步研究表明这种调控的潜在生理学意义。在这篇综述中，我们重点介绍了模型生物中的机理研究，这些研究促进了我们对小RNA如何触发基因表达中持久的表观遗传变化的理解，并且我们讨论了一些观察结果，这些观点为小RNA可能参与触发表观遗传基因表达的机制提供了支持。响应环境提示的变化以及这些变化对人口适应的影响。