r/science • u/sometimeshiny • 2d ago

Genetics Third-generation descendants of Holocaust survivors show DNA methylation differences in HPA-axis (NR3C1, FKBP5) and oxytocin-pathway genes, with greater openness to closeness but no increase in mental health symptoms.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-12085-5
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u/SaltZookeepergame691 1d ago

If you read the paper and try to actually work out what they did, you'll be disappointed.

Take the control group. Who is it? How was it recruited? What are their characteristics? How do we know they are effective controls for the 'holocaust descendent' group? None of this is communicated, at all. This is basic.

On that note, let's examine the descendent group. Is it a single grandparent survivor? Either lineage? It wasn't verified, seemingly. They recruited people via targeted advertising with compensation. What do we know about them? Almost nothing.

There's adjustment only for age, sex, batch effects, and estimated cell proportions. They also state they control for adverse childhood experience in sensitivity analysis, but never describe how they measure this, or quantify it. No data on or control for genetic ancestry, smoking, BMI, alcohol, disease, SES/education, etc.

There's no multiplicity control, despite many, many tests being done.

They constantly talk about function, eg "While stronger oxytocin system activation may support social cohesion and stress reduction, stronger HPA axis reactivity could ensure sustained vigilance and preparedness." - this is completely hypothetical, not even based on RNA levels - it's purely extrapolated from methylation data that may or may not translate to gene/protein expression and function.

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u/turtleduck 1d ago

yeah I have no idea how they could control for something as complex as generational trauma from the Hocaust. anecdotally, from the Jewish POV, there's still a fuckton of trauma that we're still processing, and different parts of the diaspora's survivors settled in different parts of the world. I find it distasteful to call myself "resilient" because my ancestors were fortunate enough to make it out of a genocide. there's definitely some weird bias going on in this article