Recently, novel experimental approaches and molecular techniques have demonstrated that a male's experiences can be transmitted through his germline via epigenetic processes. These findings suggest that paternal exposures influence phenotypic variation in unexposed progeny–a proposal that runs counter to canonical ideas about inheritance developed during the 20th century. Nevertheless, support for paternal germline epigenetic inheritance (GEI) in nonhuman mammals continues to grow and the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are becoming clearer. To what extent do similar processes operate in humans, and if so, what are their implications for understanding human phenotypic variation, health, and evolution? Here, we review evidence for GEI in human and nonhuman mammals and evaluate these findings in relation to historical conceptions of heredity. Drawing on epidemiological data, reproductive biology, and molecular embryology, we outline developments and opportunities for the study of GEI in human populations, emphasizing the challenges that researchers in this area still face.

中文翻译：

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种系表观遗传：将人类父亲经验与后代生物学和健康联系起来的挑战和机遇。

最近，新的实验方法和分子技术已经证明，男性的经历可以通过表观遗传过程通过其生殖系传递。这些发现表明，父系暴露会影响未暴露后代的表型变异——这一提议与 20 世纪发展的关于遗传的规范观念背道而驰。尽管如此，对非人类哺乳动物的父系种系表观遗传（GEI）的支持仍在继续增长，并且这种现象背后的机制正变得越来越清晰。类似的过程在人类中的作用程度如何？如果是，它们对理解人类表型变异、健康和进化有何影响？这里，我们回顾了人类和非人类哺乳动物中 GEI 的证据，并根据历史的遗传概念评估这些发现。利用流行病学数据、生殖生物学和分子胚胎学，我们概述了 GEI 在人群中研究的发展和机遇，强调了该领域的研究人员仍然面临的挑战。