Epigenetics for Beginners

You Are A Step Away From Opening Your Eyes And Mind To The World Of Epigenetics In A Manner That Will Help You Appreciate The Complexity Of The Human Cell, Genes And Other Components And How That Knowledge Is Being Applied In Transforming Lives!

In the Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944-1945, the individuals who were exposed to the famine just before birth were seen, about 60 years later, to have increased rates of coronary heart disease and obesity compared to those who weren't exposed to the famine.

That must been a result of an alteration in their genetic coding, right?

NO.

Apparently, they were found to have less DNA methylation (addition of methyl groups to the DNA molecule to change a segment without affecting the DNA's sequence) of the imprinted Insulin-like Growth Factor 2 gene compared to their siblings who had not been exposed, which shows the role of a powerful factor that doesn't require the change of the genetic sequence in organisms in development and evolution.