FMST 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Acetophenone, Nature Neuroscience, Olfactory Receptor
Document Summary
Parental olfactory experience influences behaviour and neural structure in subsequent generations. Using olfactory molecular specificity, we examined the inheritance of parental traumatic exposure, a phenomenon that has been frequently observed, but not understood. We subjected f0 mice to odour fear conditioning before conception and found that subsequently conceived f1 and f2 generations had an increased behavioural sensitivity to the f0-conditioned odour, but not to other odours. When an odour (acetophenone) that activates a known odorant receptor (olfr151) was used to condition f0 mice, the behavioural sensitivity of the f1 and f2 generations to acetophenone was complemented by an enhanced neuroanatomical representation of the olfr151 pathway. F0 males and f1 naive offspring revealed cpg hypomethylation in the olfr151 gene. In addition, in vitro fertilization, f2 inheritance and cross-fostering revealed that these transgenerational effects are inherited via parental gametes. Our findings provide a framework for addressing how environmental information may be inherited transgenerationally at behavioural, neuroanatomical and epigenetic levels.
