Publications from our group in regard to Intergenerational and Transgenerational Inheritance

Reviews

Overall review of the field

Golding J, Iles-Caven Y. Evidence for transgenerational influences on child and adolescent development. In: Rezaei N (Ed) Volume II. Common Pediatric Diseases: Current Challenges.. Sharjah, UAE: Bentham Science Publishing, 2024.

Review of associations with ancestral smoking

Golding J, Pembrey M, Iles-Caven Y, Watkins SH, Suderman M, Northstone K. Ancestral smoking and developmental outcomes: a review of publications from a population birth cohort. Biology of Reproduction 2021; 105(3): 625-631 (Special Issue Beyond Genes) https://doi.org/10.1093/biolre/ioab124

Views of the importance of the field

Grossniklaus U, Kelly WG, Ferguson-Smith AC, Pembrey M, Lindquist S. Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance: how important is it? Nature Reviews Genetics. 2013; 14(3): 228-35. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3435.

Pembrey ME. Male-line transgenerational responses in humans. Human Fertility 2010; 13(4): 268-71. https://doi.org/10.3109/14647273.2010.524721

Pembrey ME. Does cross-generational epigenetic inheritance contribute to cultural continuity? Environmental Epigenetics 2018; 4(2): dvy004. https://doi.org/10.1093/eep/dvy004

Pembrey ME, Bygren LO, Golding J. The nature of human transgenerational responses. In Environmental Epigenomics in Health and Disease 2013 (pp. 257-271). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Pembrey M, Saffery R, Bygren LO. Human transgenerational responses to early-life experience: potential impact on development, health and biomedical research. Journal of Medical Genetics 2014; 51(9): 563-72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jmedgenet-2014-102577

The Ӧverkalix project

Cardiovascular mortality

Bygren LO, Tinghög P, Carstensen J, Edvinsson S, Kaati G, Pembrey ME, Sjöström M. Change in paternal grandmothers’ early food supply influenced cardiovascular mortality of the female grandchildren. BMC Genetics 2014; 15(1): 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2156-15-12

Major review of mortality in Ӧverkalix and overweight in ALSPAC

Pembrey ME, Bygren LO, Kaati G, Edvinsson S, Northstone K, Sjostrom M, et al. Sex-specific, male-line transgenerational responses in humans. European Journal of Human Genetics 2006; 14: 159.

Inter/trans-generational associations with physical outcomes

Weight, BMI and Body Fat

Golding J, Gregory S, Northstone K, Iles-Caven Y, Ellis G, Pembrey M. Investigating possible trans/intergenerational associations with obesity in young adults using an exposome approach. Frontiers in Genetics: Applied Genetic Epidemiology 2019; 10: 314. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2019.00314

Golding J, Gregory S, Northstone K, Pembrey M, Watkins S, Iles-Caven Y, Suderman M. Human transgenerational observations of regular smoking before puberty on fat mass in grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Scientific Reports 2022. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04504-0

Golding J, Northstone K, Gregory S, Miller LL, Pembrey M. The anthropometry of children and adolescents may be influenced by the prenatal smoking habits of their grandmothers: a longitudinal cohort study. American Journal of Human Biology 2014; 26(6): 731-39. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.22594

Gregory S, Suderman M, Northstone K, Pembrey M, Watkins S, Iles-Caven Y, Golding J. Regular smoking of male ancestors in adolescence and fat mass in young adult grandchildren and great-grandchildren. [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review]. Wellcome Open Res 2022, 7:184 (https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17950.1)

Pembrey M, Northstone K, Gregory S, Miller LL, Golding J. Is the growth of the child of a smoking mother influenced by the father’s prenatal exposure to tobacco? A hypothesis generating longitudinal study. BMJ Open 2014 ;4(7): e005030. doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2014-005030

Miller LL, Pembrey M, Smith GD, Northstone K, Golding J. Is the growth of the fetus of a non-smoking mother influenced by the smoking of either grandmother while pregnant? PloS One 2014; 9(2). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086781

Northstone K, Golding J, Smith GD, Miller LL, Pembrey M. Prepubertal start of father’s smoking and increased body fat in his sons: further characterisation of paternal transgenerational responses. European Journal of Human Genetics 2014; 22(12): 1382-86. https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2014.31

Asthma

Miller LL, Henderson J, Northstone K, Pembrey M, Golding J. Do grandmaternal smoking patterns influence the etiology of childhood asthma? Chest 2014; 145(6): 1213-18. https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.13-1371

Golding J, Tunstall H, Gregory S, Granell R, Dodd JW, Iles-Caven Y, Watkins S and Suderman M. A history of asthma may be associated with grandparents’ exposures to stress and cigarette smoking. Front. Toxicol. 2023; 5:1253442. https://doi.org/10.3389/ftox.2023.1253442

Inter/trans-generational associations with sensory outcomes

Taste

Pembrey ME, Gregory S, Iles-Caven Y, Northstone K, Golding J. Paternal grandmother’s smoking in pregnancy is associated with extreme aversion to bitter taste in their grandchildren. Environmental Epigenetics 2022; dvac003. https://doi.org/10.1093/eep/dvac003

Vision

Williams C, Suderman M, Guggenheim JA, Ellis G, Gregory S, Iles-Caven Y, Northstone K, Golding J, Pembrey M. Grandmothers’ smoking in pregnancy is associated with a reduced prevalence of early-onset myopia. Scientific Reports 2019; 9(1): 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51678-9

Hearing

Hall A, Northstone K, Iles-Caven Y, Ellis G, Gregory S, Golding J, Pembrey M. Intolerance of loud sounds in childhood: Is there an intergenerational association with grandmaternal smoking in pregnancy? PloS One 2020; 15(2): e0229323. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086781

Inter/trans-generational associations with cognitive outcomes

Autism

Golding J, Ellis G, Gregory S, Birmingham K, Iles-Caven Y, Rai D, Pembrey M. Grand-maternal smoking in pregnancy and grandchild’s autistic traits and diagnosed autism. Scientific Reports 2017; 7: 46179. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep46179

Beliefs

Golding J, Gregory S, Northstone K, Pembrey M, Ellis G, Watkins S, Iles-Caven Y, Suderman M. Possible transgenerational associations between grandparents’ childhood exposures and religious belief in their granddaughters: a longitudinal cohort study [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations]. Wellcome Open Res 2023, 7:213 (https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.18049.2)

Cognition

Golding J, van den Berg G, Northstone K, Suderman M, Ellis G, Iles-Caven Y, Gregory S, Pembrey M. Grandchild’s IQ is associated with grandparental environments prior to the birth of the parents. Wellcome Open Research 2020; 5:198. https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16025.1.

DNA methylation and chromosome triploids

DNA methylation

Watkins SH, Iles-Caven Y, Pembrey M, Golding J, Suderman M. Grandmaternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with differential DNA methylation in their grandchildren. bioRxiv 2021.2004.2022.440892. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.22.440892v1

FRAXE and FRAXA

Clark R, Gregory S, Ring S, Jacobs P, Ennis S, Murray A, Ellis G, Golding J, Northstone K, Pembrey M. The FRAXA and FRAXE allele repeat size of boys from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) [version 1; peer review: 2 approved with reservations]. Wellcome Open Research 2019; 4:116 (https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15342.2)

Golding J, Clark R, Gregory S, Ellis G, Suderman M, Iles-Caven Y, Pembrey ME. Unexpected associations between the number of FRAXE repeats in boys and evidence of diabetes in their mothers and maternal grandmothers raises intriguing hypotheses. OBM Genetics 2021; 5(4): http://dx.doi.org/10.21926/obm.genet.2104141

Other

Ancestral ages

Golding J, Steer C, Pembrey M. Parental and Grandparental Ages in the Autistic Spectrum Disorders: A Birth Cohort Study. PLoS One 2010; 5(4): e9939. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0009939

Data specifically collected by ALSPAC for this project

Traumatic events in childhoods

Birmingham K, Iles-Caven Y, Golding J. ALSPAC parents’ descriptions of childhood stresses in their parents and grandparents [version 1; Wellcome Open Research 2021, 6:115 (https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16732.1)

Ellis G, Iles-Caven Y, Northstone K, Golding J. Traumatic childhood events of parents enrolled in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]. Wellcome Open Research 2020, 5:65 https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15804.1

Golding J, Gregory S, Matthews S, Smith D, Suarez-Perez A, Bowring C, Iles-Caven Y, Birmingham K, Pembrey M, Suderman M, Northstone K. Ancestral childhood environmental exposures occurring to the grandparents and great-grandparents of the ALSPAC study children. Wellcome Open Research 2020; 5. https://dx.doi.org/10.12688%2Fwellcomeopenres.16257.1

Gregory S, Iles-Caven Y, Northstone K and Golding J. Childhood life events of women enrolled in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents & Children (ALSPAC) [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]. Wellcome Open Res 2023, 8:294 (https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.19459.1)