The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance

Product Information

In both those cases, the relevant parts of the explanations for phenotypic variation are at the level of the interactions among gene products, among cell populations, and among the processes generated that link the two levels.

The methods by which genes makes these responses often involve very small chemical modifications (usually the addition of a tiny methyl group to one base of DNA). It is possible without change in DNA (mutation) for life histories to be changed irrevocably in response to the environment through epigenetic changes in our genome.There are lab experiments with mice and rats in which epigenetic effects on coat colour and obesity can be inherited. These chapters, which differ in perspective, are presented in the same section to make this contrast clear but alsoto draw connections between them.

She describes the nucleosome as DNA wrapped around “eight ping-pong balls … like a long liq­uorice whip around marshmallows”, and sees DNA as a film script, with plenty of room for interpretation and retakes. According to Carey, a "phenomenon is likely to be influenced by epigenetic alterations in DNA and its accompanying proteins" if there is genetic identity and phenotypic variability or if an organism continues to be influenced by an event long after this initiating event has occurred. Evolution seems to have solved the problem of creating more complex and sophisticated organisms by altering the regulation of the organisms than altering the proteins themselves. Bees clearly have phenomenal memories for such small creatures – they signal the whereabouts of good nectar sources by means of their famous waggle dance – and similar epigenetic mechanisms have been found in bees and humans. Chapters 3 and 4 give an overview of genetic and epigenetic molecular biology, including the genetic code, DNA replication, transcription, translation, chromatin, DNA methylation, and histone modifications.In the first, the co-editors of this volume pull together themes from the various chapters to present a coherent conceptualization of epigenetics that is true to the original intent of Waddington but also the usage of the term in modern biology.

When we talk about bio-individuality, we are saying that each of us is an individual combination of genetics, epigenetics, body sizes, genders, environmental consequences and biological profiles. These include epigenetic inheritance, of course, but also emergent phenomena such as self-organization and variational properties of development (e. She hasn't, though, solved the problem of how to make the mind-numbing complexity of some genomic interactions and the confusing nomenclature of genes palatable to the general reader. DNA methylation has profound effects on how genes are expressed and ultimately on cellular, tissue and whole-body functions.

The text is divided into an introduction and 16 chapters which handle various concepts pertaining to epigenetic theory, key experimental studies and the potential for future therapeutic application.