Youngson, Neil - University of New South Wales

个人简介

Dr Youngson’s main scientific interest has been in non-Mendelian mechanisms of phenotype transmission in mammals and the evolutionary and health implications of these phenomena. He completed his PhD with Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith at Cambridge University U.K. in 2005. From 2006-2012 he did research in the group of Professor Emma Whitelaw at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane. In both of these laboratories Dr Youngson worked on mouse models of non-genetic inheritance, making discoveries in how epigenetic molecules can be inherited between generations to influence the phenotype of offspring. With his move to UNSW in 2012 to the lab of Professor Margaret Morris his expertise is now being applied to rodent models of human disease, in particular obesity. It has long been known that whether an individual develops obesity or not is due to complex interactions between the environment (such as diet and exercise) and the genome. However, recent evidence from the Morris Laboratory in the School of Medical Sciences, and others has shown that the life-time experiences of an individual’s mother and father also influence the risk of developing obesity. This discovery is especially interesting as it suggests that what we inherit from our parents is more than just DNA, and that extra factor can cause disease. Currently the best explanation for these phenomena is the involvement of epigenetic molecules which can be transferred between generations and can persist for the life-time of an individual. Understanding the role of epigenetic molecules in obesity is an exciting new area for disease research and is likely to provide new avenues for therapeutic innovation.

研究领域

Epigenetics (incl. Genome Methylation and Epigenomics)

近期论文

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Daxinger L; Oey H; Isbel L; Whitelaw NC; Youngson NA; Spurling A; Vonk KKD; Whitelaw E, 2016, 'Hypomethylation of ERVs in the sperm of mice haploinsufficient for the histone methyltransferase Setdb1 correlates with a paternal effect on phenotype', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep25004 Maniam J; Antoniadis CP; Youngson NA; Sinha JK; Morris MJ, 2016, 'Sugar consumption produces effects similar to early life stress exposure on hippocampal markers of neurogenesis and stress response', Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, vol. 8, no. JAN2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnmol.2015.00086 O Ballard JW; Youngson NA, 2015, 'Review: Can diet influence the selective advantage of mitochondrial DNA haplotypes?', Bioscience Reports: molecular and cellular biology of the cell surface, vol. 35, no. 6, http://dx.doi.org/10.1042/BSR20150232 Ng SF; Lin RCY; Maloney CA; Youngson NA; Owens JA; Morris MJ, 2014, 'Paternal high-fat diet consumption induces common changes in the transcriptomes of retroperitoneal adipose and pancreatic islet tissues in female rat offspring', The FASEB Journal, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 1830 - 1841, http://dx.doi.org/10.1096/fj.13-244046 Youngson NA; Lin P-C; Lin S-S, 2014, 'The convergence of autophagy, small RNA and the stress response – implications for transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in plants', Biomolecular Concepts, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 1 - 8, http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/bmc-2013-0032 Nelson AC; Cauceglia JW; Merkley SD; Youngson NA; Oler AJ; Nelson RJ; Cairns BR; Whitelaw E; Potts WK, 2013, 'Reintroducing domesticated wild mice to sociality induces adaptive transgenerational effects on MUP expression', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA, vol. 110, no. 49, pp. 19848 - 19853, http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1310427110 Reddington JP; Perricone SM; Nestor CE; Reichmann J; Youngson NA; Suzuki M; Reinhardt D; Dunican DS; Prendergast JG; Mjoseng H; Ramsahoye BH; Whitelaw E; Greally JM; Adams IR; Bickmore WA; Meehan RR, 2013, 'Redistribution of H3K27me3 upon DNA hypomethylation results in de-repression of Polycomb target genes', Genome Biology: biology for the post-genomic era, vol. 14, no. 3, http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/gb-2013-14-3-r25 Youngson NA; Epp T; Roberts AR; Daxinger L; Ashe A; Huang E; Lester KL; Harten SK; Kay GF; Cox T; Matthews JM; Chong S; Whitelaw E, 2013, 'No evidence for cumulative effects in a Dnmt3b hypomorph across multiple generations', Mammalian Genome, vol. 24, no. 5-6, pp. 206 - 217, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00335-013-9451-5 Lecomte V; Youngson NA; Maloney CA; Morris MJ, 2013, 'Parental programming: How can we improve study design to discern the molecular mechanisms?', BioEssays, vol. 35, no. 9, pp. 787 - 793, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bies.201300051 Youngson NA, 2012, 'Challenges and future prospects for non-genetic inheritance', Non-Genetic Inheritance, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1 - 8, http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/ngi-2012-0001 Youngson NA; Chong S; Whitelaw E, 2011, 'Gene silencing is an ancient means of producing multiple phenotypes from the same genotype: Common mechanisms and functions in epigenetic processes can be seen throughout all life forms', BioEssays, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 95 - 99, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bies.201000122 Youngson NA; Whitelaw E, 2011, 'The effects of acquired paternal obesity on the next generation', Asian Journal of Andrology, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 195 - 196, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/aja.2010.163 Youngson NA; Vickaryous N; Van Der Horst A; Epp T; Harten S; Fleming JS; Khanna KK; De Kretser DM; Whitelaw E, 2011, 'A missense mutation in the transcription factor Foxo3a causes teratomas and oocyte abnormalities in mice', Mammalian Genome, vol. 22, no. 3-4, pp. 235 - 248, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00335-011-9317-7 Oey HM; Youngson NA; Whitelaw E, 2011, 'The characterisation of piRNA-related 19mers in the mouse', BMC Genomics, vol. 12, http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-12-315 Roberts AR; Blewitt ME; Youngson NA; Whitelaw E; Chong S, 2011, 'Reduced dosage of the modifiers of epigenetic reprogramming Dnmt1, Dnmt3L, SmcHD1 and Foxo3a has no detectable effect on mouse telomere length in vivo', Chromosoma: biology of the nucleus, vol. 120, no. 4, pp. 377 - 385, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00412-011-0318-9 Tierling S; Gasparoni G; Youngson N; Paulsen M, 2009, 'The Begain gene marks the centromeric boundary of the imprinted region on mouse chromosome 12', Mammalian Genome, vol. 20, no. 9-10, pp. 699 - 710, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00335-009-9205-6 Li X; Ito M; Zhou F; Youngson N; Zuo X; Leder P; Ferguson-Smith AC, 2008, 'A Maternal-Zygotic Effect Gene, Zfp57, Maintains Both Maternal and Paternal Imprints', Developmental Cell, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 547 - 557, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2008.08.014 Youngson NA; Whitelaw E, 2008, 'Transgenerational epigenetic effects', Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, vol. 9, pp. 233 - 257, http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.genom.9.081307.164445 Chong S; Vickaryous N; Ashe A; Zamudio N; Youngson N; Hemley S; Stopka T; Skoultchi A; Matthews J; Scott HS; De Kretser D; O'Bryan M; Blewitt M; Whitelaw E, 2007, 'Modifiers of epigenetic reprogramming show paternal effects in the mouse', Nature Genetics, vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 614 - 622, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng2031 Chong S; Youngson NA; Whitelaw E, 2007, 'Heritable germline epimutation is not the same as transgenerational epigenetic inheritance [5]', Nature Genetics, vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 574 - 575, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng0507-574