Scientists Discover a New Form of Inheritance That Doesn’t Involve DNA
13th March 2025
What they found is a new form of epigenetic inheritance driven by amyloid proteins — structures more commonly linked to diseases like Alzheimer’s. This discovery may help explain mysteries like “missing heritability” — the fact that many traits and diseases run in families without clear genetic explanations.
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Scientists have known for decades that genes alone don’t account for the full picture of inheritance. For instance, we now know about epigenetics — changes in gene expression that don’t involve alterations in DNA code — where mechanisms like small RNA molecules and chemical modifications to chromatin can alter traits that can be passed down to subsequent generations.
However, this is the first time that proteins have been identified as carriers of inheritance.