Experiences are inherited through DNA

Some geneticists affirm that the experiences of our ancestors are inherited from parents to children through DNA.

When they make this controversial statement, they do not refer to the human species in general, or the basic instincts, but to a specific inheritance of a specific person, who is the son or daughter of some particular parents.

At first we thought that nature works on a structural basis that barely suffers modifications over time. But according to an investigation of two Canadian biologists, Life stories (habits, emotional states, psychological traumas) of our ancestors modify and give our genetic material an extra degree of unique and personalized heritage.

Apparently it all started when a neurologist and a biologist entered a bar, took a couple of beers and talked about their respective lines of research. Apparently, when they left the bar they had created a new field of genetics. Although it seems implausible, this is what happened in a bar to Moshe Szyf (Molecular Biologist and Genetist of the McGill University in Montréal) and his friend Michael Meaney, a neurobiologist of the same university.

Near the 70s the geneticists discovered that the core of the cells uses a structural component of the organic molecules, the methyl, to know what pieces of information do what and observed that the methyl helps the cell to decide if it will be a cell of the heart, liver or a neuron. The methyl group operates near the genetic code, but it is not part of it. The field of biology that studies these relationships is called epigenetics, because despite studying genetic phenomena, these occur around the DNA.

Until now, scientists believed that epigenetic changes occurred only during the fetal development stage, but subsequent studies showed that, apparently, Changes in adult DNA can be produced would lead to certain types of cancer. Sometimes the methyl groups vary due to changes in diet or exposure to certain substances; However, the real discovery began when Randy Jirtle of the University of Duke showed that These changes could be transmitted from generation to generation.

Finally Szyf and Meaney have developed an innovative hypothesis: if food and chemicals can produce epigenetic changes, is it possible that experiences such as stress or drug abuse can also produce epigenetic changes in neurons DNA? This question was the starting point for a new field in the study of genetics: Behavioral epigenetics.

According to this new approach, the traumatic experiences of our past as well as those of our immediate ancestors, They leave a series of molecular wounds attached to our DNA. To such an extent that, each race and every town, would be registered in its genetic code the history of their culture: the Jews and the Shoah, the Chinese and the cultural revolution, the Russians and the Gulag, the African immigrants whose parents were persecuted in The southern United States, or an childhood of abusive abuse and parents, in short, all the stories we can imagine are influencing our genetic code.

From this point of view, The experiences of our ancestors would be modeling our own world experience today, Not only through cultural heritage but through genetic inheritance. DNA does not change properly, but psychological and behavioral trends are inherited: thus, you may not only have your grandfather's eyes, but also his bad character and his tendency to depression.

Submitted by: Raquel Guzmán