---
title: "Trauma is in your DNA, but culture and environment can disrupt the cycles"
description: "Though your environment affects your genes, the outcome is not permanent."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "THE CONVERSATION"
author: "Tara-Lyn Camilleri"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/tara-lyn-camilleri/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-07-28-trauma-is-in-your-dna-but-culture-and-environment-can-disrupt-the-cycles/"
published: "2025-07-28T15:00:12"
updated: "2025-07-21T07:46:42"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 866
---

# Trauma is in your DNA, but culture and environment can disrupt the cycles

> Though your environment affects your genes, the outcome is not permanent.

By Tara-Lyn Camilleri · Published 28 July 2025, 17:00 SAST · Updated 21 July 2025, 09:46 SAST

## Key points
- As the world watches the echoes of trauma reverberate through generations in conflict zones like Gaza and Ukraine, it turns out our genes aren't the stubborn scriptwriters of our fate, but rather flexible directors taking cues from the environment.
- As conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine escalate, concerns grow over the transmission of trauma to future generations, sparking renewed interest in transgenerational trauma.
- Phenotypic plasticity highlights how environmental factors, rather than genetic coding, shape responses to trauma across generations.
- Epigenetics plays a role in trauma transmission but is dynamic, influenced by subsequent environments and not merely a permanent imprint.
- Cultural connections and supportive interventions can mitigate the effects of inherited trauma, emphasising the importance of caregiving and community in healing.

## Content

As war rages in Gaza and Ukraine, there is [concern](https://atmos.earth/how-gazas-future-children-will-inherit-the-trauma-of-genocide/) about how the trauma might be transmitted to [future generations](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/generations-hurt-children-grandchildren-war-survivors-fear-ripple-effe-rcna21236) of people in those regions. More generally, interest in the idea of transgenerational trauma has recently surged. For example, earlier this year, National Geographic magazine asked whether genes [carry past family trauma](https://www.instagram.com/p/DGBiEyIPtR9/?igsh=Z2pueHR4bjE1ejI%3D).

But although this might be a catchy question, it’s also slightly misleading. Because although trauma can ripple across generations, shaped by how our bodies respond to their environments, its effects aren’t hard-­coded in our genes.

#### **Plastic minds and bodies**

At the heart of this process is what’s known as phenotypic plasticity. This is the capacity for organisms to produce different outcomes from the same genes, depending on their environment. These outcomes, called phenotypes, can include stress sensitivity and body shape.

One way different phenotypes can arise from the same genes is via epigenetics: small chemical changes to the DNA molecule that make particular genes more or less active. Think of these like a director’s notes on a script. These notes guide the cell on which lines to emphasise or soften, without changing the script itself. But epigenetics is just one way this plasticity is expressed. Understanding how trauma is passed across generations means looking beyond genes and cells to the environments that shape and influence them.

Human development is sculpted by lived experience, from caregiving and community to stress, safety and belonging.

These factors interact to produce lasting — but not always fixed — effects. By focusing on how they interact, rather than on single causes, we can better understand why ­trauma echoes across generations. This also helps us to identify how that cycle might be disrupted.

#### **Widespread in nature**

Phenotypic plasticity is widespread in nature. In honeybees, genetically identical larvae become queens or workers depending on [what they eat](https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.96.10.5575) while developing. In three-spined stickleback fish, early exposure to predators reshapes their [stress physiology](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10682-010-9454-6) and body shape, making them harder for predators to grasp.

These aren’t genetic differences — they’re environmental effects on development.

In humans, early life conditions similarly shape development. A child raised in an unsafe setting may develop heightened vigilance or stress sensitivity — traits that help in danger, but they can persist as anxiety or chronic stress in times of safety. This is known as [environmental mismatch](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/17456916221078318).

Across generations, plasticity becomes more complicated. In some of my [past research](https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2024.0062), I studied how diet in one generation of fruit flies shaped health, reproduction and longevity in their offspring and grand-offspring. The results varied depending on diet, generation and trait.

Traits that appeared to be useful in one generation weren’t always so in the next. This highlights how difficult transgenerational effects are to predict — precisely because of this plasticity.

#### **Too narrow an explanation**

Epigenetics often reflect environmental exposures — such as stress, trauma, nutrition or caregiving. But they’re not necessarily permanent “scars”. Many are dynamic and can shift with changing environments — especially early in life.

Studies show that epigenetic [patterns](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41390-020-01264-x) linked to early childhood adversity vary, depending on later environments such as family stability and social support. This suggests the biological imprint of early stress is shaped by what happens next.

It’s tempting to treat epigenetics as the key to explaining inherited trauma, but that’s too narrow. Trauma can influence the next generation through altered hormones, immune function or in utero conditions — all of which shape brain development and stress reactivity.

Genetic variation also plays a major role. It doesn’t encode trauma itself, but it shapes traits such as sensitivity to threat or emotional regulation. These traits aren’t chosen — they arise from a web of biological and social influences beyond our control. But how they unfold, and whether they’re amplified or softened, depends on the systems that surround us.

#### **Connection to culture**

Connection to culture plays an important role, too. In Aotearoa New Zealand, [Māori-led](https://files.vine.org.nz/issues-papers/NZFVC-Issues-Paper-15-historical-trauma_0.pdf?utm_) initiatives that centre land, language and whakapapa (ancestral lineage) have shown promise in restoring wellbeing after generations of colonisation-related trauma.

For Holocaust survivors and descendants, connection to cultural identity through ritual and shared narrative can [reduce the psychological burden](https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203776209-15/treatment-prevention-long-term-effects-intergenerational-transmission-victimization-yael-danieli) of transmitted trauma; but not all trauma is collective or institutional. Interventions such as [trauma-­informed parenting](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10567-024-00503-5) and early relational therapies have been shown to improve outcomes in the next generation.

These psychological supports affect biology. Feeling safe in our relationships, having stable routines and a sense of meaning can reduce stress hormones, modulate immune function and buffer against long-term ­disease risk.

Culture, caregiving and connection are all biological interventions. When they soften the effects of earlier stress, they may help interrupt its transmission.

#### **Reframing inherited vulnerability**

This matters, because it changes how we understand inherited vulnerability. Rather than a permanent wound passed down through DNA, the effects of trauma are better understood as changeable responses shaped by context.

Thanks to plasticity, our biology is always in conversation with the environment — and when we change the context, we can change the outcome. **DM**

[Media](https://counter.theconversation.com/content/259057/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced)

*Tara-Lyn Camilleri is a postdoctoral researcher of transgenerational effects at Monash University in Australia.*

*First published by*[*The Conversation*](https://theconversation.com/trauma-is-carried-in-your-dna-but-science-reveals-a-more-complicated-story-259057)*.*

*This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.*

![Image](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/DM-11072025-001-scaled.jpg)