Heritable changes in chromatin contacts linked to transgenerational obesity

Abstract

Burgeoning evidence demonstrates that responses to environmental exposures can be transmitted to subsequent generations through the germline without DNA mutations1,2. This is controversial because underlying mechanisms remain to be identified. Therefore, understanding how effects of environmental exposures are transmitted to unexposed generations without DNA mutations is a fundamental unanswered question in biology. Here, we used an established murine model of transgenerational obesity to show that direct or ancestral exposure to the obesogen tributyltin (TBT) elicited persistent changes in topologically associating domains (TADs) in primordial germ cells (PGCs) isolated from embryos of exposed and subsequent unexposed generations. New TAD boundaries were formed within the Ide gene encoding insulin degrading enzyme in the exposed PGCs, then stably maintained in PGCs of the subsequent (unexposed) two generations. Concomitantly, Ide mRNA expression was decreased in livers of male descendants from the exposed dams. These animals were hyperinsulinemic and hyperglycemic, phenocopying Ide-deficient mice that are predisposed to adult-onset obesity. Creation of new TAD boundaries in PGCs, suppression of hepatic Ide mRNA, increased fat mass, hyperinsulinemia and hyperglycemia were male-specific. Our results provide a plausible molecular mechanism underlying transmission of the transgenerational predisposition to obesity caused by gestational exposure to an environmental obesogen. They also provide an entry point for future studies aimed at understanding how environmental exposures alter chromatin structure to influence physiology across multiple generations in mammals.