Methyl Madness: The Road to the Final Phenotype Chapter 7 Methyl Madness: The Road to the Final Phenotype

Epigenetics Epigenetics is the theory and study of how offspring inherit traits from their parents without changing the DNA. Caused by the ENVIRONMENT, not the DNA sequence. Can be caused by food in the environment, predators living in the environment, and other environmental stimuli. Methyl Markers can also play a role.

DNA Methylation DNA methylation is a biochemical process that suppresses genes when a compound called a methyl marker binds to a gene and changes the way a gene is expressed without changing the DNA. DNA methylation plays an important role for epigenetic gene regulation in development and disease. Is theorized as the cause of some cancer and many other diseases.

Methyl Markers Methyl Markers are compounds that attach to specific genes suppressing their expression. The author describes these compounds as a genetic light switch turning off the genes the compounds attach to. Methyl Markers help adapt the offspring to better suit the environment it thinks it’s going into. These markers usually do this while the baby is still in the womb, but these markers can also occur throughout your life. These include the environmental stimuli we were talking about earlier. Theorized as the cause of Epigenetics. Thrifty Phenotype Hypothesis- Offspring that received poor nutrition in the womb develop “thrifty” metabolisms that hoard nutrients which is linked to childhood obesity.

Identical Twins Identical twins can develop different traits, diseases, and fingerprints if they receive different methyl markers. The twins will be similar in those areas, but will not be identical due to epigenetics.

Spanning the Generations Scientist have discovered that your grandmother can have an equal or even greater effect on your epigenetics than your mother. Since a human female when she is born will have the complete set of eggs she will have for her life, the egg you developed from was created while your mom was still in your grandmother’s womb. Since your grandmother passed epigenetic signals to your mother, she was also passing those signals to you. For example, scientists have discovered that children whose grandmothers smoked while pregnant were more likely to have asthma than children whose mothers smoked while pregnant.