What Role Does Chromatin Play In Epigenetic Research

The most compelling piece of information that I read from the article "Epigenetics: Its What Turns You On...and Off" (Schardt, 2013) is how children born from the same mother, before gastric bypass surgery and after the surgery, had different patterns of epigenetic marks than their siblings. It would not have crossed my mind that being overweight would actually have an affect on your genes, that could be passed down to your offspring. Researchers have also reported that the gene IGF2 was more turned on in those born to obese fathers, which might increase the risk of becoming overweight in adulthood (Schardt, 2013). So they chances that a child becomes overweight is on both parents and not just one.

What makes one individual different from the other? Many have attempted to answer this question- from ancient philosophers and theologists to modern day scientists. Regardless of whether the individual concerned is a cell or a whole organism, the answer is said to lie in the nature vs. nurture debate. Thus arose another, related question- How do individuals with extremely similar blueprints develop an astounding amount of differences? Biological research attempting to settle the debate for once and for all has found that differences amongst a cohort of individuals is established by an interplay of both- genetics (nature) and various environmental influences (nurture).

Thesis: Individuals that have experienced traumatic events or are put into high stress environments are prone to having their epigenetics modified which can be passed down to offspring. The altered genes can induce people to becoming much more vulnerable to depression and anxiety as a result. While there isn't a way to “cure” intergenerational trauma there are ways to cope with it.

Researchers first thought the genes you receive from your parents are set in stone since they are made of a genetic code set in our DNA sequence;however, they are discovering that there is a second layer of structure that combines with DNA to decide whether or not a gene is active or not, called the epigenome. The epigenome consists of the DNA, histones, a protein DNA is wrapped around, and chemical tags. The epigenome alters the genetic code by directing signals. The signals come from the environment, which are reacted upon by epigenetic tags to turn a gene either on or off without affecting the DNA sequence. Certain things from our environment that send signals to epigenetic tags to change our genes in the epigenome includes the following:

The environmental factors that impact the epigenome are diet of the organism, involvement in physical activities and exposure to toxins and stress.

The PBS video called “Epigenetics” brought to light some very interesting views. Through rats scientist have been able to see the works of epigenetics and believe that the finding have led to the idea that the change in genetics has the same effect on humans. The most interesting part of the video was that younger pairs of twins have very similar genes, but the older pairs of twin have more epigenetic difference in their genes. This validates the idea that the epigenetic difference in old twins is caused by environmental factors such as lifestyle choices. The idea also alludes to the idea that our parents and grandparents healthy and epigenetics may affect my heath and my children’s health. This leads to the inclination that my child’s health

Epigenetics tell your genes what to do. They are basically a switch turning a gene on or off. The research currently being done shows that the persons’ environment can directly affect their genes. Research being done by Michael Skinner shows that exposure to a known teratogen, pesticides, are having a direct impact on our genes. The pesticides are causing some epigenetics to turn on and others to shut off. This one example of how some teratogens are epigenetic influences. Yes, we need to be wary of where, when, how, and if we decide to use most household chemicals. There have been many studies showing that chemicals can affect our health. Further research needs to be done into epigenetics and teratogens in general and into household

To understand epigenetics and transgenerational epigenetics in greater detail we need to obtain a clearer picture of the underlying molecular mechanisms. Lim and Brunet (2013) revealed that environmental stimuli can influence the chromatin structure by noncoding RNAs- including siRNA (small interfering RNA, worm), piRNA ((Piwi-interacting RNA, worm and fly), viRNA (small interfering RNAs derived from virus, worm), miRNA (micro RNA, mice)- DNA methylation (mice, rat) and histone modification (with the help of Histone methyltransferase poteins)- H3K4me2/3 (worm), H3K36me3 (worm), H3K36me3 (worm, fly), H3K9me2/3 (worm, fly), H3K27me3 (mice, human). Prion proteins might also play role (yeast). These changes might influence the metabolics, which changes the expression of different chemicals and are themselves potential environmental stress factors; thus, they could initiate epigenomic changes. Chromatin modifications

Epigenetics is the correlation between our lifestyle choices and our overall wellbeing. Choices that we can control such was what we eat, the amount of exercise, and how we manage our stress will affect whether genes will be expressed or silent. Expressed genes are those that are active while silent genes are inactive. Genes are permanently expressed while epigenes can change with time. These epigenes are effected by lifestyle choices and environmental factors. An example of how an epigene can change over time would be the expression of diabetes. An individual could be predisposed to the condition but is making healthy eating and exercise decisions so that epigene may not expressed. That same person may start making poor decisions later

To me epigenetics is the how behind each and every person’s personality. We always look for answers to questions, that are right now to incomprehensible to us but still trying to quantify them, and epigenetics is the latest answer. First we were looking at the gnome to try and answer medical questions of who and why certain people get diseases, now with that not giving us the results we want we are digging deeper into the bodies makeup trying to uncover its secrets.

Epigenetic characteristics are the process by which your genetic information is changed by environmental influences without an alteration in DNA. Some epigenetic effects occur at the beginning of life as biochemical elements silence methylation, which is the ephemeral of the chemical fragment call methyl group. The details of methylation are not clear to biologist as they are still trying to figure out how it develops and why it modifies gene expression. One interesting discovery to developmentalist is that the known diseases to be genetic (including cancer, schizophrenia and autism) are known to be epigenetic. One example of epigenetics is histone modification, which is increasing or confiscating chemical groups to or from histones.

Environment: Many chemicals in nature can induce epigenetic changes. These include arsenic and cadmium. Arsenic for example leads to the hypomethylation of ras gene which codes for the production of ras proteins that help each cell to grow and divide in appropriate times. Cadmium in turn leads to global hypomethylation by inactivating DNMTs.

Epigenetics are those states which are due to the stable and inherited changes which are in the chromosomes but not in the sequence of that DNA.

Since the word epigenetics was coined by Conrad Waddington in the 1940’s, the term has been used largely to describe phenotypic changes that do not adhere to the typical Mendelian inheritance expectations for an organism’s genome (Waddington C, 1942). To put it simply the term referrers to intrinsic or extrinsic forces that alter expected visible changes in an organism and these changes are often heritable by offspring (NIH, 2015). This should not be confused with mechanisms such as point mutations which also can alter genes by producing a different genotype, but rather should be thought of as a change in state of genetic material leading to alterations in the expression potential of a cell and its substrates (Ledford H, 2008). Genes are the blueprints of every organism and as such they specificity lay out the formation and function of that organism and everything within it. These same genes are what is passed on to offspring and thus are considered heritable. However, since most organisms obtain two sets of these blueprints, one from each parent, the genotype and thus phenotype are not always a clear cut predictable outcome due to mechanisms such as crossing over, chromatin remodeling or even epigenetics. Genes are stretches of deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA) that encode ribonucleic acids (RNA) that in the end encode for a polypeptide or chain of polyepties that have a specific function in the organism such as regulation or expression (Alberts B, 2002). Epigenetics can

Epigenetics can be hereditable or environmental factors that affect the expression of genes and lead to changes in gene expression. Unlike genetics, epigenetics does not only have to do with which genes are passed down to the offspring and the DNA sequence. The environmental conditions of the offspring’s parents impact the genes in their eggs and sperms by “switching on” certain genes and “switching of” others (Dowshen). Since the genes expression of the gametes are affect, the phenotypes of the offspring will change. Even in a person’s lifetime, environmental factors such as stress, chemical exposure, and diet can continue to impact gene expression through DNA methylation. During DNA methylation, a methyl group is randomly added to a 5-carbon cytosine ring, making 5-methylcytosine and these groups inhibit transcription. (Cheriyedath). Due the fact that transcription is not possible, the expressing of the genes in that section of the DNA strand will be suppressed. The attachment of the methyl group to DNA is not determined, which means that