Expenditure on the treatment of drug and alcohol disorders in hospitals: How much and what explains it?

SummaryRapid or even anticipatory adaptation to environmental conditions can provide a decisive fitness advantage to an organism. The memory of recurring conditions could also benefit future generations, however neuronally-encoded behavior isn’t thought to be inherited across generations. We tested the possibility that environmentally triggered modifications could allow “memory” of parental experiences to be inherited. In Drosophila melanogaster, exposure to predatory wasps leads to inheritance of a predisposition for ethanol-rich food for five generations. Inhibition of Neuropeptide-F (NPF) activates germline caspases required for transgenerational ethanol preference. Further, inheritance of low NPF expression in specific regions of F1 brains is required for the transmission of this food preference: A maternally derived NPF locus is necessary for this phenomenon, implicating a maternal epigenetic mechanism of NPF-repression. Given the conserved signaling functions of NPF and its mammalian NPY homolog in drug and alcohol disorders, these observations raise the intriguing possibility of NPY-related transgenerational effects in humans.

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Transgenerational inheritance of ethanol preference is caused by maternal NPF repression

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.45391 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Julianna Bozler ◽

Balint Z Kacsoh ◽

Giovanni Bosco

Keyword(s):

Food Preference ◽

Epigenetic Mechanism ◽

Future Generations ◽

Transgenerational Inheritance ◽

Transgenerational Effects ◽

Ethanol Preference ◽

Alcohol Disorders ◽

Parental Experiences ◽

Fitness Advantage ◽

Drug And Alcohol

Rapid or even anticipatory adaptation to environmental conditions can provide a decisive fitness advantage to an organism. The memory of recurring conditions could also benefit future generations; however, neuronally-encoded behavior isn’t thought to be inherited across generations. We tested the possibility that environmentally triggered modifications could allow ‘memory’ of parental experiences to be inherited. In Drosophila melanogaster, exposure to predatory wasps leads to inheritance of a predisposition for ethanol-rich food for five generations. Inhibition of Neuropeptide-F (NPF) activates germline caspases required for transgenerational ethanol preference. Further, inheritance of low NPF expression in specific regions of F1 brains is required for the transmission of this food preference: a maternally derived NPF locus is necessary for this phenomenon, implicating a maternal epigenetic mechanism of NPF-repression. Given the conserved signaling functions of NPF and its mammalian NPY homolog in drug and alcohol disorders, these observations raise the intriguing possibility of NPY-related transgenerational effects in humans.

Download Full-text