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Epigenetics, the storage of genetic information outside of the DNA relies on methylation. E.g. a smoking grandfather can cause problems for his grandchildren, e
by fxj 5y ago
Epigenetics, the storage of genetic information outside of the DNA relies on methylation. E.g. a smoking grandfather can cause problems for his grandchildren, even though this information is not stored inside the DNA but in the methylation patterns which are also inherited. It will be interesting how much epigenetics will have an influence on the prevention and cure of cancer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_epigenetics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_epigenetics
"As Vogelstein et al. point out, in a colorectal cancer there are usually about 3 to 6 driver mutations and 33 to 66 hitchhiker or passenger mutations.[2] However, in colon tumors compared to adjacent normal-appearing colonic mucosa, there are about 600 to 800 heavily methylated CpG islands in promoters of genes in the tumors while these CpG islands are not methylated in the adjacent mucosa."
- pfisherman 5y agoMethylation is just one part of epigenetics. There are other types of chemical modifications such as histone acylation that play a role. Also physical interactions such as transcription factor binding, chromatin accessibility, etc. Increasingly the spatial organization of the genome into topologically associated domains (TADs) is thought to impact transcription.
- ralfd 5y agoIn sexually reproducing organisms, much of the epigenetic modification within cells is reset during meiosis.
- rflrob 5y agoWhile I’m of the opinion that trans-generational epigenetic inheritance is not typically important in human biology, the most convincing argument I’ve heard is that the egg cells that will become a grandchild are present and post-meiotic in the fetus of the mother, so exposures to the grandmother could have effects 2 generations down without requiring some relatively exotic pattern of inheritance.