研究:飲食習慣也能遺傳

People can bequeath their children the consequences of their own eating habits, according to a study published in the journal Cell。

A research team from the University of Massachusetts Medical School placed male mice on a low-protein diet from the time they were weaned until they reached sexual maturity. Then they found the second-generation mice had hundreds of genetic mutations - particularly in the liver - and this had a severe impact on their metabolic functioning。

"It's consistent with the idea that when parents go hungry, it's best for offspring to hoard calories," said lead researcher Oliver Rando. He went on to say that the third generation will be of interest as well. "There are many ways our parents can 'tell' us things," said Rando。

Researchers do not yet understand how the genetic information is transferred from father to child。

美國《時代週刊》27日報道稱，一項發表在生物學雜誌《細胞》上的研究論文表明，人們能將自身飲食習慣帶來的後果遺傳給子孫後代。

馬薩諸塞大學醫學院的研究小組給雄性鼠提供低蛋白飲食，自哺乳期到性成熟期。隨後他們發現，第二代小鼠的大量基因發生突變——尤其是肝臟部位——而這種變化對他們的新陳代謝機制產生了重大影響。

“這就意味着，如果父母感到飢餓，後代最好也開始攝入卡路里，”研究帶頭人奧利弗•蘭多說道。他補充說(在小鼠研究中)第三代也有同樣變化。“看來我們的父母有很多方法‘告訴’我們一些信息，”蘭多說道。

目前研究人員還沒有搞清楚這種基因信息是如何從父代傳遞到子代的。