Epigenetics
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009The wonderful world of change. Epigenetics brings in a new search about human development and disease.
“Epigenetics” — a rapidly growing research field that investigates heritable alterations in gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in DNA sequence.
The definition is intended to address confusion within the scientific community about the distinction between the mechanisms of epigenetic memory during early development versus those of dynamic chromatin regulation involved in differential expression of genes throughout adult life. The mechanisms underlying epigenetic memory are of great importance to human development and disease, but they are poorly understood.
The proposed definition reads: “an epigenetic trait is a stably inherited phenotype resulting from changes in a chromosome without alterations in the DNA sequence.”