# Effects of paternal nicotine exposure on sncRNA expression in sire sperm and offspring hippocampus

> **NIH NIH F31** · PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE · 2021 · $14,450

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Recent evidence suggests that paternal drug exposure can affect behavioral and physiological phenotypes in
unexposed offspring. In support, preliminary data from my laboratory indicates enhanced contextual fear
conditioning and changes in hippocampal functioning in the offspring of nicotine-exposed male mice. This
presents a potentially serious issue related to interpretation of data derived from both human and animal
populations for which parental nicotine exposure was not taken into account. “Missing heritability” and
discrepancies in heritability estimates between studies may be explained partially by variability in parental
exposures. Characterization of mechanisms underlying this mode of inheritance, termed “multigenerational
epigenetic inheritance,” is essential in order to compensate for these effects in experimental design and begin
to understand exposure-specific multigenerational consequences. Other models of paternal drug exposure
have pointed to inheritance through germline sncRNA expression as a potential underlying mechanism of
multigenerational inheritance. In order to identify pathways underlying multigenerational effects of nicotine
exposure on contextual fear learning, I will sequence sncRNA derived from sperm of male mice exposed to
nicotine (F0) and the hippocampus of their offspring (F1). This data will be analyzed alongside our existing F1
hippocampus DNA methylation and mRNA expression datasets to reveal relationships between sncRNA
expression in sperm and pathways underlying expression of multigenerational phenotypes in offspring. The
proposed work will provide foundational insight into nicotine’s multigenerational effects, enriching current
understanding of addiction heritability.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10138500
- **Project number:** 5F31DA049395-02
- **Recipient organization:** PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE
- **Principal Investigator:** Dana Fuad Zeid
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $14,450
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-04-01 → 2021-06-22

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10138500

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10138500, Effects of paternal nicotine exposure on sncRNA expression in sire sperm and offspring hippocampus (5F31DA049395-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10138500. Licensed CC0.

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