"epigenetic modifications" refer to changes that can happen to our genes without altering the DNA sequence itself. These modifications can affect how our genes are expressed or "turned on" or "off" without changing the genetic code.
Epigenetic modifications can be influenced by various factors like our lifestyle, environment, and experiences. They can determine which genes are active in different cells or parts of our bodies and play a role in our development, health, and even diseases.
Full definition
Later in life the genetic material can be changed
by epigenetic modifications, i.e. chemical alterations of the DNA the affect the activity of the genes.
It has been long debated if
epigenetic modifications accumulated throughout the entire life can cross the border of generations and be inherited to children or even grand children.
Evidence suggests that environment and lifestyle choices can
trigger epigenetic modifications, and that could help explain why identical twins end up being not so identical.
What we found is that the ability of this chronic social stress to produce maladaptive changes in brain and behavior — loss of pleasure, inability to sleep normally and so on — are mediated through
epigenetic modifications of gene expression, in particular, emotional centers of the brain.
Nestler: The ability of this chronic social stress to produce maladaptive changes in brain and behavior are mediated
through epigenetic modifications of gene expression in particular emotional centers of the brain.
«Father's environmental exposure affects sperm epigenetics, study shows: Phthalate levels in expectant fathers have an effect on couples» reproductive success
via epigenetic modifications of sperm DNA.»
However, 15,627 CpG sites in / near ∼ 30 % of all genes exhibited differential methylation in adipose tissue from a case - control cohort of unrelated individuals, supporting a key role
for epigenetic modifications in T2D patients.
In a previous article published in the May issue of the journal Genetics & Epigenetics, the authors discuss
how epigenetic modifications play a role in the development of diseases including cancer, cardiovascular, metabolic, neurologic and pulmonary disorders.
Research in the Meissner laboratory focuses on how stem cells achieve and maintain pluripotency, and the role that
epigenetic modifications play in this process.
It turns out in our works to date that we've been able to find
epigenetic modifications at particular genes in emotional centers of the brain that mediate that resilience.
The study, published September 19 in Science, focused on one well
studied epigenetic modification — the methylation of a DNA packaging protein called histone H3.
In a research effort that merged genetics, physics and information theory, a team at the schools of medicine and engineering at The Johns Hopkins University has added significantly to evidence that large regions of the human genome have built - in variability in reversible
epigenetic modifications made to their DNA.
Corin is particularly attractive as an inhibitor of
epigenetic modifications because it has dual - target specificity which allows for more selective targeting of epigenetic complexes in treated cells.
The study is the first to establish a close link
between epigenetic modifications on a cancer gene and the risk of developing the disease, says Robert Philibert, a behavioral geneticist at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
The discovery by Northwestern Medicine scientists
suggests epigenetic modification, a process that enhances or disrupts how DNA is read, is an integral component of the disease and its progression.
Professor Keith Godfrey, from the Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit and the National Institute for Health Research Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, and a member of the study team, said: «The new findings provide the first direct evidence linking faltering of a baby's growth in the womb
with epigenetic modifications that themselves may increase the risk of childhood obesity.
One of the
main epigenetic modifications is DNA methylation, which plays a key role in embryonic development and the formation of different cell types, regulating when and where genes are switched on.
«
Epigenetic modification strikes me as an ideal way for animals to respond to environmental change,» says Alan Cooper, a palaeobiologist at the University of Adelaide in South Australia.
Moreover, in human blood cells of people suffering from morbid obesity and whose glucose metabolism was already disturbed, the researchers detected the
same epigenetic modification in the human gene.
As the researchers showed, already at the age of six weeks the Igfbp2 gene exhibited higher levels of methylation, i.e.
stronger epigenetic modification, and at the same time the IGFBP2 synthesis in the liver was significantly reduced.
In order to elucidate the significance of
early epigenetic modifications on the development of neural cells during embryogenesis in the mouse, Götz and her colleagues specifically inactivated the gene Uhrf1.
Martienssen, Couture, and Yannick Jacob, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at CSHL and lead author on the paper, found that the key was a
single epigenetic modification.
Sarah Kimmins, who studies transgenerational inheritance at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, pointed out that some of the genes that were knocked down themselves may
influence epigenetic modifications.
The locus - specific origin of for mature miR -124-3p was identified at a site on chromosome 3, out of three possible chromosomal sites, and two CpG «islands» that can act as sites
from epigenetic modification by DNA methylation were identified near the miR - 124 gene promoter on chromosome 3.
Since HIV infection itself alters epigenetic processes in the immune system, the research team wondered whether a distinct DNA methylation profile, a
major epigenetic modification where methyl groups are added to DNA, occurs in those with HIV associated - cognitive impairment and whether it exists in distinct immune cell populations from the blood.
Our next experiments will look more closely at
epigenetic modifications within the thermogenesis signaling pathway so that we may manipulate it,» said Sakai.
With the genome engineering revolution came epigenome - engineering tools - zinc finger nucleases and TALENs fused to epigenetic modifiers
enabled epigenetic modifications at a user - specified locus.
Toward the end of his postdoc, as a Helen Hay Whitney Foundation fellow, Dr. Lomvardas started working on DNA methylation and
other epigenetic modifications of olfactory receptors.
We focus on the
5hmC epigenetic modification and have a patent protected platform for detection of highly accurate signatures for a variety of diseases using this mark.
«Effects of endocrine - disrupting chemicals may be transmitted to further generations through
germline epigenetic modifications or from continued exposure of offspring to the environmental insult.»