<em>C. elegans</em> Mothers Can Encode Avoidance for Four Generations (IMAGE)

Princeton University

<em>C. elegans</em> Mothers Can Encode Avoidance for Four Generations

Caption

Princeton University researchers Rebecca Moore, Rachel Kaletsky and Coleen Murphy have discovered that learned behaviors can be inherited for multiple generations in C. elegans, transmitted from parent to progeny via eggs and sperm cells. C. elegans are initially attracted to pathogenic P. aeruginosa, but upon eating the bacterium and becoming ill, they learn to avoid it. C. elegans mothers (P0) pass down this aversive behavior to their progeny for four generations (F1-F4).

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