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Changes to sperm may transmit epigenetic changes to children May 24th 2018 THE effects of child abuse can last a lifetime. Neglected or abused children have a higher risk of developing all sorts of ailments as adults, including mental illnesses such as depression but also physical ones like cancer and stroke. In fact, the effects may last even longer. Emerging evidence suggests that the consequences of mistreatment in childhood may persist down the generations, affecting a victim’s children or grand-children, even if they have experienced no abuse themselves. 虐待儿童的影响可能会持续一生。被忽视或受虐待的儿童长大后更容易患上各种疾病，包括抑郁症等精神疾病，还有癌症和中风等身体疾病。事实上，这种影响可能会持续更久。新的证据表明，儿童期受虐待的后果可能会持续几代人，影响受害者的子女或孙辈，即使他们自己没有受到虐待。 Exactly how this happens is not well understood. Rigorous experiments on human subjects are difficult. Scientists have therefore turned to rats and mice. But now Larry Feig of Tufts University and his colleagues have shown that psychological stress seems to cause similar changes in the sperm of both mice and men. Their study is published this week in Translational Psychiatry. 这究竟是如何发生的还不是很清楚。对人进行严格的实验是困难的，因此科学家们转而研究老鼠。但是现在塔夫茨大学的拉里·菲格和他的同事们已经证明，心理压力似乎导致老鼠和男人的精子发生相似变化。他们的研究本周发表在《转化精神病学》杂志上。 Biologists know that traits are carried down the generations by genes. Genes encode proteins, and proteins make up organisms. That is still true. But it has recently become clear that it is not the whole story. Organisms regulate the activity of their genes throughout their lives, switching different genes on and off as circumstances require. It is possible that such “epigenetic” phenomena can be passed, along with the genes themselves, to an animal’s descendants. They offer a mechanism by which an animal’s life experiences can have effects on its offspring. 生物学家知道特征是由基因代代相传的。基因编码蛋白质，蛋白质组成有机体，现在仍然是这样。但是最近研究表明，事情并非如此。生物体一生都在调节其基因的活动，根据环境的需要显现或隐藏不同的基因。这种“表观”现象可能连同基因本身一起传递给动物的后代。它们提供了一种机制，通过这种机制，动物的生活经历可以对其后代产生影响。 英文部分来自《经济学人》杂志
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