Neuronal Perception of the Social Environment Generates an Inherited Memory that Controls the Development and Generation Time of C. Elegans

An old and controversial question in biology is whether information perceived by the nervous system of an animal can ‘cross the Weismann barrier’ to alter the phenotypes and fitness of their progeny.    Here we show that such intergenerational transmission of sensory information occurs in the model organism, C. elegans, with a major effect on fitness. Specifically, that perception of social pheromones by chemosensory neurons controls the post-embryonic timing of development of one tissue – the germline – relative to others in an animal’s progeny. Neuronal perception of the social environment thus intergenerationally controls the generation time of this animal.