Soma-to-germline transmission of RNA in mice xenografted with human tumour cells: possible transport by exosomes.

ABSTRACT: Mendelian laws provide the universal founding paradigm for the mechanism of genetic inheritance through which characters are segregated and assorted. In recent years, however, parallel with the rapid growth of epigenetic studies, cases of inheritance deviating from Mendelian patterns have emerged. Growing studies underscore phenotypic variations and increased risk of pathologies that are transgenerationally inherited in a non-Mendelian fashion in the absence of any classically identifiable mutation or predisposing genetic lesion in the genome of individuals who develop the disease. Non-Mendelian inheritance is most often transmitted through the germline in consequence of primary events occurring in somatic cells, implying soma-to-germline transmission of information. While studies of sperm

SUBMITTER: Cossetti C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4081593 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature