Diet is likely to play a role in this process, according to the study published in Genome Biology.
This is the latest discovery by an international collaboration led by researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Unit, based in The Gambia, West Africa, and the MRC International Nutrition Group at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine together with a team at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.
Previous studies by the scientists showed that a child's DNA can be affected by their mother's diet before pregnancy 1 but they have now hit upon a gene called VTRNA2-1 as being particularly sensitive to these changes. VTRNA2-1 is a tumour suppressor gene which also affects how the body responds to viral infections.
It is well established that small differences in the DNA that makes up our genes can affect our risk of having a range of diseases. While a child's genes are inherited directly from their parents, how these genes are expressed is controlled through 'epigenetic' modifications to the DNA. The most commonly studied epigenetic modifications are chemical marks (methylation) placed on the DNA of genes that can prevent the message from being read; like sleepers laid across a railway track. Importantly, these marks can be influenced by an individual's environment.