Introducing Epigenetics

RNA is similar to DNA, but its short, single strands are less stable and more mobile than the DNA’s long double helix.

“Epi-” means upon, or in addition; epigenetics is the study of how additional factors interact with genes to direct the processes that make our cells* and bodies work.

nature (our genes) and nurture (our environment, experiences and other non-genetic factors)

However, a few hundred imprinted genes are transcribed from only the maternally-inherited chromosome, and others from only the paternally-inherited chromosome.

every cell in the human body contains exactly the same DNA as the original fertilized zygote.

This experiment proved that fully differentiated cells retain all the genetic material needed to produce every cell in the body.

DNA was characterized in 1953 by Watson, Crick, Wilkins and Franklin.

exception, identical twins, come from a single fertilized zygote that splits in two.

Each of the four new cells created during a single meiosis event therefore receives 23 chromosomes, rather than the 23 pairs of chromosomes found in most other cells.

The combination of DNA, histones and scaffold proteins, plus other proteins and RNAs that bind to the overall structure, is called chromatin*.