Epigenetic modifications do not affect the DNA sequence of genes, but change how the DNA is packaged and how genes are expressed.
These epigenetic modifications do not change the genetic code, but may contribute to the inhibition of gene expression, causing the cells to produce smaller amounts of the corresponding proteins.
Not exact matches
By contrast, in more than 90 % of endometrial cancers, the gene has undergone hypermethylation, an
epigenetic modification that doesn't change its DNA sequence but renders it inactive.
Epigenetics refers to reversible
modifications to DNA that don't affect the DNA sequence but alter how genes are read.
The alteration of gene activity, called
epigenetics, might result from
modification of RNA molecules that interact with genes; a
modification of the packaging that carries DNA; molecular switches attached directly to the DNA itself; or even something to
do with the cell's power - stations, the mitochondria, Baugh said.
The scientists also found that the genes that
do not carry either of the two
epigenetic modifications are completely silenced in ES cells.
Since the methylation of cytosine
does not alter the DNA sequence, but only influences when and where these proteins are produced, it is considered an
epigenetic modification.