Non-Mendelian inheritance of DNA methylation patterns in mice
TL;DR
Imagine your DNA is like a huge book of instructions. Mendel's laws are the normal rules for how chapters of that book get passed from parents to children. But there's also a layer of sticky notes on top of the book—called epigenetic marks—that tell cells which chapters to read and which to ignore. This study found that most of the time (about 93%), these sticky notes follow the normal inheritance rules. But about 7% of the time, they do something unexpected: new patterns appear that neither parent had, or a mark from one parent somehow silences the same mark from the other parent (called paramutation), or males and females end up with completely different sticky notes even when they inherit the same DNA. Scientists discovered this by using a new ultra-precise DNA reading technology in mice, and it opens the door to understanding hidden layers of how traits—and possibly diseases—are passed down through generations.
Epigenetic mechanisms such as genomic imprinting demonstrate that molecular inheritance can deviate from typical Mendelian patterns. Despite this, the intergenerational inheritance of DNA methylation remains poorly understood. Here we developed a genome-wide approach to study epigenetic inheritance in mice using long-read nanopore sequencing. Using this approach in both liver and muscle, we found that ~93% of autosomal epigenetic inheritance patterns followed Mendel's laws, primarily driven by cis-acting methylation quantitative trait loci. However, we also identified extensive non-Mendelian inheritance, including emergent epigenetic inheritance patterns, widespread sex-specific DNA methylation patterns localized to the liver, and five seemingly new autosomal and X-linked imprinted genes. Notably, we also report an example of naturally occurring intergenerational paramutation, confirmed over strain-specific transposable elements within Capn11 and highly likely at Vps37c. Overall, an unexpectedly high ~7% of autosomal epigenetic inheritance patterns identified were non-Mendelian, highlighting the importance of epigenetic information in the analysis of inherited traits and disorders.
- 1Approximately 93% of autosomal epigenetic inheritance patterns followed Mendel's laws, primarily driven by cis-acting methylation quantitative trait loci (meQTLs).
- 2An unexpectedly high ~7% of autosomal epigenetic inheritance patterns were non-Mendelian, including emergent epigenetic inheritance and sex-specific DNA methylation patterns.
- 3Five seemingly new autosomal and X-linked imprinted genes were identified using long-read nanopore sequencing in mouse liver and muscle.
- 4A naturally occurring example of intergenerational paramutation was identified, confirmed over strain-specific transposable elements within Capn11 and highly likely at Vps37c.
- 5A genome-wide framework for studying epigenetic inheritance across generations was developed using long-read nanopore sequencing in Collaborative Cross mouse crosses.
The 2026 World Cup's grass is an engineering problem
Imagine you're trying to play soccer in 16 different places across the United States, Canada, and Mexico — some in freezing cold, some blazing hot, some in stadiums with roofs that block sunlight. Half of those stadiums normally use fake grass. Now FIFA, the organization that runs the World Cup, wants every single pitch to feel and play exactly the same way, like a video game where every level has identical physics. To do that, they hired grass scientists — yes, that's a real job — who figured out how to grow special grass on thin mats with plastic underneath so it can be transported like a carpet, stitched with synthetic fibers so it doesn't rip when players sprint and tackle, and tested by literally shooting balls at it with a cannon to make sure it bounces right. Different grass species are used depending on whether a stadium is hot, cool, or dark. It's basically a giant, living, high-tech floor installation that has to survive the world's best athletes running on it.
Adversarial AI reveals mechanisms and treatments for disorders of consciousness
Imagine your brain is like a city with millions of roads and traffic systems. When you're awake and conscious, traffic flows in complex, coordinated patterns. In a coma, something has gone wrong — but we've never had a great way to figure out exactly which roads are broken or how to fix them. This study built a very smart AI that learned to tell the difference between 'awake brain' and 'coma brain' by studying hundreds of thousands of brainwave recordings. Then, like a detective, the AI was pitted against a simulated model of the brain to figure out: what changes in the brain's wiring would explain the difference? The AI figured out — on its own, without being told — that two key things go wrong in a coma: a specific circuit deep in the brain (called the basal ganglia indirect pathway) gets disrupted, and the brain's 'braking system' (inhibitory neurons) starts working too hard in the wrong places. The researchers then checked these predictions against real patient data, and both checked out. The AI also suggested that zapping a specific deep brain region with high-frequency electrical pulses might help wake people up — and early evidence from human patients supports this idea.
Trionda: Enhanced Surface Roughness Relative to Previous FIFA World Cup Match Balls
Imagine throwing a ball through air. The air pushes back on the ball, slowing it down—that's called drag. But something interesting happens: at a certain speed, the air flowing around the ball switches from a smooth, lazy flow to a chaotic, turbulent flow, and paradoxically the ball actually experiences LESS drag in that turbulent zone. Think of it like a golf ball—those dimples are there precisely to trigger this turbulence early and make the ball fly farther. The speed at which this switch happens is called the 'critical speed' or 'drag crisis.' Scientists put the Trionda ball in a wind tunnel—basically a giant fan tube—and measured exactly how much air resistance it faces at different speeds. They found that Trionda's surface is effectively rougher than most previous World Cup balls, meaning it hits that drag crisis switch at a lower speed (11.9 meters per second, roughly 27 mph). In plain terms, Trionda behaves more predictably in flight than some past balls, but very long, powerful kicks may travel slightly shorter distances than they would have with previous balls.
Gene conversion empowers natural selection in a clonal fish species
Unfortunately, the content of this research abstract could not be accessed due to paywall restrictions. Without being able to read the actual findings about gene conversion in clonal fish species, I cannot provide an accurate explanation of what the researchers discovered or why it matters.