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The peculiar genetics of the ribosomal DNA blurs the boundaries of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance

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Abstract

Our goal is to draw a line—hypothetical in its totality but experimentally supported at each individual step—connecting the ribosomal DNA and the phenomenon of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance of induced phenotypes. The reasonableness of this hypothesis is offset by its implication, that many (or most) (or all) of the cases of induced-and-inherited phenotypes that are seen to persist for generations are instead unmapped induced polymorphisms in the ribosomal DNA, and thus are the consequence of the peculiar and enduringly fascinating genetics of the highly transcribed repeat DNA structure at that locus.

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Abbreviations

BLM:

Bloom syndrome protein

CTCF:

CCCTC-binding factor

GWAS:

Genome-wide association study

IR:

Inverted repeat

LTR:

Long terminal repeat

QTL:

Quantitative trait locus

RT-QPCR:

Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction

Su(var):

Suppressor of variation

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge Drs. Pamela Geyer, C.-Ting Wu, and Harmit Malik for the encouragement.

Author contribution statement

FB and KAM wrote, read, and approved the manuscript.

Funding

The work was funded by an NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award (1R01GM123640), and support was provided by the UA. Cancer Center Core Grant (P30CA023074).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Farah Bughio & Keith A. Maggert

  2. University of Arizona Cancer Center, University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Farah Bughio & Keith A. Maggert

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  1. Farah Bughio
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  2. Keith A. Maggert
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Correspondence to Keith A. Maggert.

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Bughio, F., Maggert, K.A. The peculiar genetics of the ribosomal DNA blurs the boundaries of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. Chromosome Res 27, 19–30 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10577-018-9591-2

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