Beyond contributing a haploid genome to the next generation, germ cells also transmit so-called “epigenetic” information with the potential to influence offspring phenotype. Over the past two decades, we and others have shown that ancestral environmental conditions can impact metabolic and other phenotypes in the next generation, a phenomenon clearly related to the once-discredited idea of “inheritance of acquired characters.” 

The Rando lab has developed several models for transmission of epigenetic information through the male germline in mammals, exploring how paternal diets or drug exposures program metabolism and behavior in offspring. Dr. Rando will discuss their efforts to understand these systems mechanistically, focusing primarily on surprising features of the sperm RNA payload, including: 1) a central role for germline accessory tissues in shaping the sperm epigenome; 2) control of preimplantation development and gene regulation by sperm-delivered RNAs, and; 3) functional roles (in the embryo and elsewhere) for an understudied class of regulatory small RNAs derived from mature tRNAs, known as tRNA fragments.