Mother's Diet Affects Unborn Child's Genes

A mother's diet during pregnancy can permanently change how genes are expressed in her child, the results of recent research suggests.

The results, published in the peer reviewed scientific journal Nature Communications, detail how the diet of a mother may actually be "turning off" some genes  in her child and "turning on" others prior to birth, effectively changing how that child's genetic information is expressed.

Animal testing has shown that massive changes to diet can affect what genes are expressed in a mother's unborn child, but this study shows the first evidence of this occurring in humans.

According to the study, researchers followed about 160 pregnant women in rural Gambia, where seasonal climate changes lead to massive differences in available food.

The researchers assessed 84 pregnant women who conceived at the peak of the rainy season, and a similar number of women who conceived during the region's dry season.

Blood sample were taken from the women over the course of their pregnancies, while their dietary habits were observed and reported. The DNA of their children was also analyzed at least two months following their birth.

Following a DNA analysis, the researchers were able to conclude that infants conceived during the rainy season had significantly higher rates of methylation -- a genetic process that is associated with genomic imprinting, x-chromosomes inactivation, suppression of repetitive elements, and carcinogenesis -- in six specific genes, compared to the dry season children.

While the researcher are unsure exactly what higher rates of methylation does in those six specific genes, the very fact that they were able to associate massively changed nutrition with a change in genetic expression helps defend the theory that a mother's nutrition can directly influence their child's DNA.

The study was published in Nature Communications on April 29.