Transgenerational inheritance of altered H3K27me3 in wild-type Caenorhabditis elegans.

Transient alterations of H3K27me3 in C. elegans persist for many generations under selective pressure, affecting fertility in wild-type descendants.

• Why it matters: Understanding the limits and regulation of epigenetic inheritance is crucial for revealing how organisms adapt without genetic mutations, yet this process remains poorly characterized.
• What they did: Researchers developed a C. elegans system to study transgenerational inheritance of H3K27me3, focusing on the mechanisms involving SET-32/H3K23me3 and MES-4/H3K36me3.
• The result: Altered H3K27me3 landscapes and fertility defects can be inherited across generations, suggesting epigenetic inheritance as a heritable, mutation-independent adaptation mechanism.