"While our genes are not changed by life experiences, they can be tuned through a system known as epigenetics."
It is indeed not a modification of the genetic code. And the transmission of epigenetic state from one generation to the next is much less straightforward.
But there is another lasting effect of the attack, hidden deep in the genes of
Syrian families. The grandchildren of women who were pregnant during the siege —
grandchildren who never experienced such violence themselves — nonetheless bear
marks of it in their genomes. Passed down through their mothers, this genetic
imprint offers the first human evidence of a phenomenon previously documented
only in animals: The genetic transmission of stress across multiple generations.
The article clearly implies a modify of the genes. The genome is altered.
The actual study doesn’t make that claim, the article is presenting it incorrectly. They’re talking about a methylation on certain genes. Think of it as amplification or attenuation and of a signal. The signal is the same, just weaker or stronger.
I've read the article, I've read the comments. Nobody has remotely tried to explain how these changes are heritable, at all. The article had an image with the word "germline", which was never expounded on.
It is indeed not a modification of the genetic code. And the transmission of epigenetic state from one generation to the next is much less straightforward.