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Basically, some life events lead to inheritable changes. The mechanism is apparently methylation (or other similar changes) to the DNA. Why this is inheritable

by jbert 16y ago

Basically, some life events lead to inheritable changes. The mechanism is apparently methylation (or other similar changes) to the DNA. Why this is inheritable I do not understand. One rather relevant example from a recent new scientist that, in rats, overweight dad rats had offspring who more likely to get diabetes. I get the impression it's early days with all this stuff, but it's going to be interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/10/051026090636.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/10/051026090636.ht... http://ndt.oxfordjournals.org/content/24/4/1088.full http://ndt.oxfordjournals.org/content/24/4/1088.full

jergason 16y ago
DNA methylation is heritable because the DNA strands that are methylated become part of the gametes and thus part of the developing fetus. The DNA is physically modified, and that same modified DNA combines with DNA from the other parent to form the DNA for the child. This is an oversimplification, but imagine you have a sweater that you dye bright green. You then unravel it and use part of the yarn, along with yarn from another sweater, to knit a new sweater. Some of the new sweater will have the same physical change, the bright green dye, that the old sweater had.
- jbert 16y ago
  > that same modified DNA combines with DNA from the other parent to form the DNA for the child. Sure, but only cell#1 has the actual molecules from the parents. Cell division requires that the DNA be replicated. What surprises me is that the replication step (apparently) preserves methylation. (If it didn't, there would be no observable epigenetic effect in the organism). i.e. from an information perspective, the bits encoded in the DNA aren't don't just come from the sequence of bases, but also "out of band" data.
pjscott 16y ago
Most of our epigenetic information is reset when we reproduce. Epigenetic changes play a big role in the differentiation of cells into their different types; since epigenetics changes the expression of genes, it can make cells behave differently. There are several methyltranserase enzymes whose job is to set up methylation patterns in the different types of cells while the embryo is still developing. Methylation of DNA tends to persist through cell division because there are enzymes which approximately copy over the methylation patterns during DNA replication. If some epigenetic changes happen in sperm or eggs, then some of this may be carried over to offspring. You're right that we're still in the early days of mapping this out and understanding it. Molecular biology is a crazy mess that makes the worst spaghetti code look downright reasonable. That's evolution for you....

by jbert 16y ago

jergason 16y ago

DNA methylation is heritable because the DNA strands that are methylated become part of the gametes and thus part of the developing fetus. The DNA is physically modified, and that same modified DNA combines with DNA from the other parent to form the DNA for the child. This is an oversimplification, but imagine you have a sweater that you dye bright green. You then unravel it and use part of the yarn, along with yarn from another sweater, to knit a new sweater. Some of the new sweater will have the same physical change, the bright green dye, that the old sweater had.

jbert 16y ago
> that same modified DNA combines with DNA from the other parent to form the DNA for the child. Sure, but only cell#1 has the actual molecules from the parents. Cell division requires that the DNA be replicated. What surprises me is that the replication step (apparently) preserves methylation. (If it didn't, there would be no observable epigenetic effect in the organism). i.e. from an information perspective, the bits encoded in the DNA aren't don't just come from the sequence of bases, but also "out of band" data.

pjscott 16y ago

Most of our epigenetic information is reset when we reproduce. Epigenetic changes play a big role in the differentiation of cells into their different types; since epigenetics changes the expression of genes, it can make cells behave differently. There are several methyltranserase enzymes whose job is to set up methylation patterns in the different types of cells while the embryo is still developing. Methylation of DNA tends to persist through cell division because there are enzymes which approximately copy over the methylation patterns during DNA replication. If some epigenetic changes happen in sperm or eggs, then some of this may be carried over to offspring. You're right that we're still in the early days of mapping this out and understanding it. Molecular biology is a crazy mess that makes the worst spaghetti code look downright reasonable. That's evolution for you....