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Currently Playing: Sperm’s Secret Messages: Beyond DNA

A host of recent research suggests that traits from a father’s lifestyle - such as diet, stress, and nicotine use - can be passed to his children via sperm. Now a new study on exercise offers the strongest evidence yet that the effect of environmental exposures are transmitted by RNAs, which can influence gene expression in the developing embryo. Watch the full video story: https://youtu.be/mf5envOypNU?si=uMPHW3R2yA4qPNzi&t=316 Paper - "Paternal exercise confers endurance capacity to offspring through sperm microRNAs" https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(25)00388-2 Read more at Quanta Magazine: https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-dads-fitness-may-be-packaged-and-passed-down-in-sperm-rna-20251222/ #science #biology #epigenetics --------- Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation. We focus on developments in mathematics, theoretical physics, theoretical computer science and the basic life sciences. READ free math and science articles on the Quanta website: www.quantamagazine.org LEARN about the Simons Foundation: www.simonsfoundation.org FOLLOW our social channels: - Instagram: quantamag - Bluesky: @quantamagazine.bsky.social‬ - Facebook: quantanews - X: quantamagazine