Live Long, Pass It On

Live Long, Pass It On - Science News: "eneration to generation via these chemical tags known as histone modifications rather than by DNA variations. Only a few studies have suggested that any histone modifications can be inherited, “but this is a fairly definitive demonstration,” says Tony Kouzarides, a molecular biologist at the University of Cambridge in England."

'via Blog this'

Although long life can be inherited, it doesn’t necessarily happen through the genes.

A new study shows that the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of long-lived roundworms live five to six days longer than usual even though they no longer carry the genetic mutations that caused their grandparents’ longevity. Instead, the descendants’ longevity may be because they inherited epigenetic marks — chemical tags on their DNA or DNA-associated proteins called histones — that change gene activity without changing the genes themselves, researchers at Stanford and Harvard universities report online October 19 in Nature.