BACKGROUND The traditional concept that heritability occurs exclusively from the transfer of germline-restricted genetics is being challenged by the increasing accumulation of evidence confirming the existence of experience-dependent transgenerational inheritance. However, questions remain unanswered as to how heritable information can be passed from somatic cells. Previous studies have implicated the critical involvement of RNA in heritable transgenerational effects, and the high degree of mobility and genomic impact of RNAs in all organisms is an attractive model for the efficient transfer of genetic information. RESULTS We hypothesized that RNA may be transported from a somatic tissue, in this case the brain, of an adult male mouse to the germline, and subsequently to embryos. To investigate this, we injected one hemisphere of the male mouse striatum with an AAV1/9 virus expressing human pre-MIR941 (MIR941). After 2, 8 and 16 weeks following injection, we used an LNA-based qPCR system to detect the presence of virus and human MIR941 in brain, peripheral tissues and embryos, from injected male mice mated with uninjected females. Virus was never detected outside of the brain. Verification of single bands of the correct size for MIR941 was performed using Sanger sequencing while quantitation demonstrated that a small percentage (~ 1-8%) of MIR941 is transported to the germline and to embryos in about a third of the cases. CONCLUSIONS We show that somatic RNA can be transported to the germline and passed on to embryos, thereby providing additional evidence of a role for RNA in somatic cell-derived intergenerational effects.

中文翻译：

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RNA从小鼠大脑到种系和后代的直接证据。

背景技术遗传力仅由种系限制的遗传学转移而产生的传统观念正受到越来越多的证据积累的挑战，这些证据证实了经验依赖的跨代遗传的存在。然而，关于如何从体细胞传递遗传信息的问题仍未得到解答。先前的研究表明，RNA参与了遗传性世代效应，而RNA在所有生物中的高度迁移性和基因组影响是有效传递遗传信息的诱人模型。结果我们假设RNA可以从成年雄性小鼠的体细胞组织（在本例中为大脑）运输到种系，再到胚胎。为了对此进行调查，我们向雄性小鼠纹状体的一个半球注射了表达人类前MIR941（MIR941）的AAV1 / 9病毒。注射后2、8和16周后，我们使用了基于LNA的qPCR系统，从注射的雄性小鼠与未注射的雌性交配的小鼠，大脑，周围组织和胚胎中检测病毒和人MIR941的存在。从未在大脑外部检测到病毒。使用Sanger测序对MIR941的正确大小的单条带进行验证，而定量分析表明，在大约三分之一的情况下，小比例（〜1-8％）的MIR941被转运至种系和胚胎。结论我们证明了体细胞RNA可以转运到种系并传递给胚胎，从而提供了RNA在体细胞衍生的世代效应中的作用的其他证据。