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Epigenetics usually involves a change that is not erased by cell division, and affects the regulation of gene expression. [3] Such effects on cellular and physiological phenotypic traits may result from environmental factors, or be part of normal development. Epigenetic factors can also lead to cancer. [4]
Red Junglefowl, an ancestor of domestic chickens, show that gene expression and methylation profiles in the thalamus and hypothalamus differed significantly from that of a domesticated egg-laying breed. Methylation differences and gene expression were maintained in the offspring, depicting that epigenetic variation is inherited.
There are mechanisms by which environmental exposures induce epigenetic changes by affecting regulation and gene expression. Four general categories of epigenetic modification are known. self-sustaining metabolic loops, in which an mRNA or protein product of a gene stimulates transcription of the gene; e.g. Wor1 gene in Candida albicans;
Both measures rely on so-called epigenetic clocks to estimate biological age by analyzing DNA methylation, which affects gene activity. A quick primer on epigenetics and DNA methylation Our ...
This group of epigenetic changes that depend on the chromosome's parent of origin (including both those that affect gene expression and those that do not) are called parental origin effects, and include phenomena such as paternal X inactivation in the marsupials, nonrandom parental chromatid distribution in the ferns, and even mating type ...
[1] [2] Epigenetic modifications are reversible modifications on a cell's DNA or histones that affect gene expression without altering the DNA sequence. [3] Epigenomic maintenance is a continuous process and plays an important role in stability of eukaryotic genomes by taking part in crucial biological mechanisms like DNA repair.
Such remaining epigenetic changes can be viewed as “molecular scars” [12] that may affect gene expression. In rodent models, drugs of abuse, including cocaine, [ 15 ] methamphetamine, [ 16 ] [ 17 ] alcohol [ 18 ] and tobacco smoke products, [ 19 ] all cause DNA damage in the brain.
Environmental epigenetics is a branch of epigenetics that studies the influence of external environmental factors on the gene expression of a developing embryo. [1] The way that genes are expressed may be passed down from parent to offspring through epigenetic modifications, although environmental influences do not alter the genome itself.