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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
by 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.