# Fear might be a heritable trait
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-might-be-a-heritable-trait/675700
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [December 6, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-might-be-a-heritable-trait/675700 "2013-12-06T19:49:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-might-be-a-heritable-trait/675700/1 "2013-12-06T19:49:56Z")
The heritability of epigenetic markers is still a debated topics and this will no doubt add fuel to that debate, but it seems that mice conditioned to associate fear with certain specific smells can transmit this fear to their offspring as a type of [genetic memory](http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/12/in-mice-fear-learned-by-parents-is-transferred-to-their-offspring/).
> [@](#):
>
> The idea that organisms can stably inherit characteristics they acquire during their lifetimes was discarded a long time ago; the fact that it doesn’t seem to happen was a big strike against the pre-Darwinian idea about evolution. But over the last few decades, that idea has been making a bit of a comeback. We’ve identified a few forms of epigenetic inheritance—primarily chemical modifications of DNA—that can be changed during the life of an organism but can still be passed down to its progeny. There’s clear evidence that this sort of inheritance is used in plants, and there are a few hints that it could influence significant traits in animals.
> Yesterday, _Nature Neuroscience_ published a paper that provides the strongest evidence yet that an acquired trait can be passed down for several generations in mice. Animals that were trained to associate a specific smell with pain produced progeny that also were sensitive to the smell—even when their entire role in producing the next generation was limited to being a sperm donor.
Full story at link. Similar article in [New Scientist.](http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24677-fear-of-a-smell-can-be-passed-down-several-generations.html?full=true&print=true)
Once again it looks like scientific dogma may once again get turned on its head.
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2013, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-might-be-a-heritable-trait/675700/2 "2013-12-06T19:55:05Z")
> [@deltasigma](#):
>
> Once again it looks like scientific dogma may once again get turned on its head.
that’s scary. glad i’m not a meese.
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2013, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-might-be-a-heritable-trait/675700/3 "2013-12-06T20:22:57Z")
> [@deltasigma](#):
>
> Once again it looks like scientific dogma may once again get turned on its head.
No. This is what bugs me about the breathless excitement with which epigenetics has been reported in the popular press. This is NOT Lamarckian evolution. This is NOT DNA somehow being changed in response to experience. It is GENE REGULATION, nothing more or less. The DNA sequence itself is utterly unchanged. It is moderately interesting to discover that regulatory states can be passed on from generation to generation, but frankly, it wasn’t all that surprising, since we already knew that large-scale effects like heterochromatin were heritable.
It’s an interesting new wrinkle. It is NOT “turning scientific dogma on its head”.
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### Author:  [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2013, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-might-be-a-heritable-trait/675700/4 "2013-12-06T20:38:40Z")
It’s not Lamarckian but it certainly is turning dogma on its head. I’ve seen enough of the reporting on the heritability of epigenetic markers in recent years to know that this came as quite a surprise to people in the field and the field itself is very, very young.
I love how certain people try to down play these things after the fact when 10 or 20 years ago you almost literally would have been burned at the stake for even suggesting such nonsense. Fortunately, some of us ignorant lay folk know better. 😛 😛 😛
edit: and by the way, I put that comment in there deliberately just to see if I would get precisely that sort of reaction from people who would try to pretend that this wasn’t a big deal - as happens with so many of my posts. But keep it up, because I certainly intend to.
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2013, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-might-be-a-heritable-trait/675700/5 "2013-12-06T20:58:18Z")
> [@deltasigma](#):
>
> you almost literally would have been burned at the stake for even suggesting such nonsense.
Oh, nonsense.
Look, if you want to play your little games, fine. Go have fun. I’m in the field and up on the research, and I’ve said my piece. If you, as a “layperson”, want to believe something else, go for it. I’m done.
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### Author:  [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2013, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-might-be-a-heritable-trait/675700/6 "2013-12-06T21:04:16Z")
> [@Smeghead](#):
>
> Oh, nonsense.
>
> Look, if you want to play your little games, fine. Go have fun. I’m in the field and up on the research, and I’ve said my piece. If you, as a “layperson”, want to believe something else, go for it. I’m done.
That’s nice. I’ve known plenty of people who are also ‘in the field’ including researchers, post docs, etc. So if you want to play the authority card that’s cool. It will work on most people but I know better. I’ve talked to and socialized with enough of these folks to know how things work and what makes the wheels of grant money turn. And I will say it once again, this is groundbreaking stuff.