Host: The Japanese Society of Toxicology
Name : The 51st Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Toxicology
Date : July 03, 2024 - July 05, 2024
Since the developmental mechanisms during fetal stages are strictly regulated, fetus is susceptible to the influence of environmental stresses such as maternal nutritional status and chemical exposures. Experimental studies using animals have revealed that exposure of pregnant animal to agricultural fungicides (such as vinclozolin) can affect the phenotype of descendants for several generations. On the other hand, recent research has also demonstrated that paternal environmental stress can also impact the phenotype of future generations. For instance, rearing of male mice by either normal or low-protein diets results in increased expression of cholesterol metabolism genes in the livers of offspring from the paternal low-protein diet group. These phenomena suggest the existence of inheritance pattern as non-genetic traits, indicating the epigenetic elements in spermatozoa to be altered by environmental stress and inherited by descendants.
In order to comprehensively capture sperm epigenetic alterations induced by paternal environmental stress, we have independently established novel methods for the high-purity fractionation of mature sperm and mapping of sperm histones. Utilizing these techniques, we have detected sperm epigenetic changes induced by low-protein diets in mice and by rearing in space environments, thereby elucidating some of the molecular mechanisms underlying phenotypic changes in the next generation. In this presentation, we will focus on the molecular mechanisms of paternal stress inheritance via stress-responsive transcription factor ATF7.
