Inherited memories of a chromosomal site

A Caenorhabditis elegans nematode surrounded by offspring at different stages (eggs and larvae). UNIGE - Two UNIGE teams have discovered that the location of a specific chromosomal site is transmitted between two generations, even if the part of the protein that initially defines that site is absent in the offspring. Most biological traits are inherited through genes, but there are exceptions to this rule. Two teams from the University of Geneva have been investigating the location of centromeres  - specific sites on chromosomes that are essential for cell division. They found that in the small worm Caenorhabiditis elegans , the transmission of the correct location of these sites to the offspring is not mediated by genes, but by an epigenetic memory mechanism. These results have been published in the journal PLOS Biology . Living organisms, from humans to microscopic worms, inherit physical and sometimes behavioral traits from their parents.