Mice Inherit the Fears of Their Fathers

how, exactly, does a parent’s stress leave such a deep impression on its progeny?
Part of it is nurture. A parent’s sadness and stress naturally affects how they interact with other people, including their children. The Holocaust study, in fact, found that the survivors with PTSD tended to emotionally abuse or neglect their children. And we know from some remarkable experiments in rats that parental care affects the offspring’s genes: Rat pups that get a lot of licking and grooming from their mothers show distinct changes in their epigenome, the chemical markers that attach to DNA and can turn genes on and off. Neglected pups, in contrast, don’t show these epigenetic tweaks.
Now a fascinating new study reveals that it’s not just nurture. Traumatic experiences can actually work themselves into the germ line. When a male mouse becomes afraid of a specific smell, this fear is somehow transmitted into his sperm, the study found. His pups will also be afraid of the odor, and will pass that fear down to their pups.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/11/15/mice-inherit-the-fears-of-their-fathers/