Back

An intergenerational lipid memory of the social environment in C. elegans

Wilhelm, T.; Chen, W.-W.; Wenzel, A.; Tang, W.; Cicerone, M. T.; Lehner, B.

2025-06-03 genetics
10.1101/2025.06.03.657568 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Information about the environment can, in some cases, be transmitted to an organisms offspring by epigenetic inheritance. Here, we describe a novel form of epigenetics in C. elegans where information is transmitted between generations not by alterations in DNA, chromatin, or RNA, but by changes in the composition of lipids. Specifically, we delineate an environment-to-neuron-to-intestine-to-oocyte signalling axis that alters progeny thermotolerance by remodelling lipid provisioning to oocytes when animals detect social pheromones. Intergenerational information transmission via lipid memories may represent an underappreciated form of epigenetics.

Matching journals

The top 3 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.