RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Biologists at the University of California,
Riverside have found that voluntary activity, such as daily
exercise, is a highly heritable trait that can be passed down
genetically to successive generations. Working on mice in the
lab, they found that activity level can be enhanced with
"selective breeding" – the process of breeding plants and
animals for particular genetic traits. Their experiments showed
that mice that were bred to be high runners produced high-
running offspring, indicating that the offspring had inherited
the trait for activity. "Our findings have implications for
human health," said Theodore Garland Jr., a professor of
biology, whose laboratory conducted the multi-year research.
"Down the road people could be treated pharmacologically for low
activity levels through drugs that targeted specific genes that
promote activity. Pharmacological interventions in the future
could make it more pleasurable for people to engage in voluntary
exercise. Such interventions could also ma