The journal PLoS Biology has published the results of a new study, authored by scientists from the University of Florida in Tallahassee. The researchers said that the descendants of smokers (children and grandchildren) may experience a significant drop in IQ level and cognitive abilities.
This conclusion was drawn after scientists conducted experiments on mice treated with nicotine. It was found that in the DNA of their offspring had problems with the “rewriting” of genetic information. Such information is transmitted from DNA from generation to generation, it allows you to adapt quickly to the environment. The process is similar to the “overwriting” is due to the activity of special proteins-histones, which influence the “readability” of individual genes and their activity in different tissues and cells.
In experiments with animals it was found that DNA is “overwrite” and additional epigenetic marks that are associated with a predisposition to habits and manias. In other words, the harmful propensities of their ancestors do not go unnoticed, and are left in the genes, transmitted to posterity, the memory of him.
For example, earlier it was found that mothers who smoke children are born with a greater predisposition to the development of ADHD and other behavior disorders. In the new project, the authors were able to verify that the offspring will be affected by the consumption of nicotine fathers.
It turned out that in the brain of mice born to smokers, there have been significant changes in the concentration of dopamine and other signaling molecules. If this were fixed a serious deviation in the level of development of intelligence – the mouse comes to children and grandchildren of the animals that were given nicotine, much longer to find a way out of the maze and much worse remembered his situation, than mice from the “non-Smoking” ancestors.
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