Susan Strome, PhD
Distinguished Professor of Molecular, Cell, & Developmental Biology
Department of Molecular, Cell, & Developmental Biology
University of California-Santa Cruz

Department of Genetics

Inherited chromatin states shape transcription patterns in offspring and grandoffspring

Talk abstract:The role that chromatin states serve in transmitting gene expression information across generations via sperm and oocytes is not well understood. We utilized a model in which C. elegans sperm and oocyte alleles were inherited in different states of the repressive mark H3K27me3. This resulted in the alleles achieving different transcriptional states within the nuclei of offspring. Using this model, we showed that sperm alleles inherited without H3K27me3 were sensitive to up-regulation in offspring somatic and germline tissues, and that tissue context determined which genes were up-regulated. We found that the subset of sperm alleles that were up-regulated in offspring germlines retained the H3K27me3(-) state and were transmitted to grandoffspring as H3K27me3(-) and up-regulated epialleles, demonstrating that H3K27me3 can serve as a transgenerational epigenetic carrier in C. elegans.

Hosted by:  Drs. Susan Dutcher and Tim Schedl
In-person only:  Connor Auditorium (FLTC)