Mechanisms and Consequences of Inclusive Inheritance

We know that heritable disorders can be caused by a wide variety of genetic variants, from single nucleotide mutations to short insertions and deletions to larger structural variants. Some genetic variants are caused by the mobilization of genomic elements called transposons. However most research into complex disease has focused on single nucleotide changes of the genome. This overlooks fast evolving parts of the human genome, representing perhaps 50% of the total. Here we will investigate "epigenetic" mechanisms that have evolved to control transposon expression and mobility such as DNA methylation, chromatin modification and non-coding RNAs. These epigenetic mechanisms have been shown to be heritable in a variety of organisms and are able to transfer information about the environment across generations. Here we will use invertebrate and vertebrate animal models to learn more about the mechanisms and impact of such epigenetic inheritance including disease.