A scientific study demonstrated that rat mothering behavior impacts the stress response in their pups. Rats that were born and grew up with attentive mothers showed low activation of stress-response genes later in life, while rats with inattentive mothers had high activation of stress-response genes in the same situation. An additional study that swapped the pups at birth (i.e., rats born to inattentive mothers grew up with attentive mothers and vice versa) showed the same positive effect of attentive mothering. How do genetics and/or epigenetics explain the results of this study

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Answer and Explanation:

Regarding genetics, the results of the study show that the mother's genetic material does not influence the behavior of rats in times of stress or in the biological responses of rats to these stressful moments. This is because the mice inherited their mothers' genes, but did not show the same results in a stressful situation when they were raised with different mothers.

Regarding epigenetics, however, we can see that the mothers' behavior in relation to the care of rats managed to provoke epigenetic changes that prevented or stimulated the expression of genes linked to stress, in these rats. The rats that were raised with attentive mothers showed a low expression of stress-linked genes, regardless of the biological mother they had. In addition, it is possible to notice that this modification is permanent, since the rats presented this same type of response throughout their lives.

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