Preview

What Is Epigenetic?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
379 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Is Epigenetic?
Epigenetics has changed the way scientists have originally viewed the way people act based on nature and nurture. Identical twins and mice are a good example of this.

Biologists have questioned how identical twins that have the same DNA can end up with different traits. For example one twin could develop bipolar disorder and the other twin is uneffected. So how does this happen when they have the same DNA? The answer is epigenetics. Histones have DNA wrapped around them to keep the DNA strands condensed, develop epigenetic marks. This affects certain parts of one of the twins DNA causing them to have different traits. Epigenetics varies depending on lifestyle and age. Epigenetic marks occur in many different parts of the body. For
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Epigenetics: Hidden Switches
    • 845 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Epigenetics: Hidden Switches

    Matt is a history teacher. His twin brother Greg is a drug addict. Growing up in the Boston area, both boys did well in high school: they were strong students in the classroom and decent athletes on the field, and they got along with their peers. Like many young people, the brothers drank the occasional beer, smoked cigarettes and experimented with marijuana. Then, in college, they tried cocaine. For Greg, the experience derailed his life. The questions that have risen from this are: what made Greg so susceptible to the grasps of cocaine- to the point that the drug essentially destroyed his life? And how did his identical twin, who shares the exact same genes, escape a similar fate? And how can exposure to a drug set up some individuals for a lifelong addiction, while others can move past their youthful indiscretions and go on to lead productive lives? These questions, although not new, have lead neuroscientist to begin taking a fresh approach to finding the answers. New findings suggest that experience can contribute to mental illness by adding or removing “epigenetic” marks on chromosomes. These tags are particular chemicals that can influence gene activity without changing the information encoded in the gene.…

    • 845 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Chemistry Final
    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Chemistry Final

    3. The Theory of Heredity: changes in DNA sequence may produce changes that can be passed down to the next generation…

    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Genetics Resilience After Trauma Summary
    • 1191 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Genetics Resilience After Trauma Summary

    Epigenetics is the complex yet utterly fascinating study of the modification of gene expression and the peculiar ways organisms can be altered due to these changes. Dan Hurley, writer for Discover Magazine, introduces Michael Meaney and Moshe Syzf, “two young scientists following in Freud’s and Darwin’s footsteps” who, in 1992, had “begun to forge a revolutionary new synthesis” of how various life experiences may actually impact genes and behavior in general. Scientists had already witnessed epigenetic changes resulting from “diet and chemicals,” but Meaney and Syzf turned the tables and raised a “hypothesis as improbable as it was profound”— could certain life experiences, such as child abuse and genocide, alter genes as well? This one seemingly simple question rattled the entire foundation of epigenetics and cultivated a brand new field known as behavioral epigenetics, so dynamic it has “spawned dozens of studies” and provided insight for future brain treatments.…

    • 1191 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Epigenetics: Video Analysis
    • 1121 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Epigenetics: Video Analysis

    The article recounts through examples on how the legs of an arm or leg differ from those of the eye or the immune system. Each cell in the body has a different function and through this she tries to answer the question of how this different cells in the body are able to maintain their unique abilities despite sharing a similar DNA. She arrives at a conclusion that the epigenetic regulation of the genes is what makes this…

    • 1121 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Neurological Processes Research Paper
    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Neurological Processes Research Paper

    Biology is changed by psychology. The development of techniques which allow scientist to monitor the brain and it functions allows it to be possible to have a much clearer understanding of how the brain works. Post translational modification, which is a type of modification of proteins that has been shown to respond in many cell types during…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Epigenetics Week 3 Assignment
    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Epigenetics Week 3 Assignment

    The field of epigenetics is “the study of heritable changes in gene activity which are not caused by changes in the DNA sequence” (“Wikipedia”; n.d.). One can adopt a healthy lifestyle to change the impact of the genes inherited by an offspring. Ornish states that changing eating habits, loving more, and getting more exercise can cause a large increase in brain cells. (“ted.com/speakers”; n.d.) These changes could also impact the number of disease provoking genes that one will pass on to an offspring.…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Analysis Of Piaget's Four Stages Of Development
    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Analysis Of Piaget's Four Stages Of Development

    Twins are people who develop from the same fertilized egg, any differences between them are a direct result from their environment.…

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Epigenetics
    • 2073 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Epigenetics

    * 1) A majority of genetically engineered crops in production worldwide today have been engineered with a gene that:…

    • 2073 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Epigenetic Changes Affect Genes
    • 1414 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Epigenetic Changes Affect Genes

    Epigenetics involves genetic control by factors other than an individual's DNA sequence. Epigenetic changes can switch genes on or off and determine which proteins are…

    • 1414 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Practical 8 Natural Selection
    • 1751 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Practical 8 Natural Selection

    A discovery of the DNA in 1953 would change the way science studied evolution. Now, science knew that it was DNA that caused the variation seen in nature and DNA that caused those traits to be passed from parent to offspring.…

    • 1751 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Epigenetic Conspiracy Essay
    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Epigenetic Conspiracy Essay

    In recent years it has become apparent that the environment and underlying mechanisms affect gene expression and the genome outside of the central dogma of biology. It has been found that many epigenetic mechanisms are involved in the regulation and expression of genes such as DNA methylation and chromatin remodeling. These epigenetic mechanisms are believed to be a contributing factor to pathological diseases such as Diabetes type II. An understanding of the epigenome of diabetes patients may help to elucidate otherwise hidden causes of this disease. Critical to the understanding of more complex mechanisms of inheritance we must first have a fundamental understanding of mitosis. Since 1996, as a newly assistant professor of biology, I started to integrate the African Diaspora into teaching the cell…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Epigenetics
    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Epigenetics

    As it turns out, there may be more to inheritance than just DNA sequence. Epigenetics also could play a role. Epigenetics can dictate which genes in an organism are turned on and off and because of this, an organism can have several changes in their gene expression without any changes to their actual DNA sequencing. This information can persist within an individual because the epigenetic markings get copied along with the DNA when cells reproduce. As evidence accumulates, it is speculated that epigenetics could have played a role in the dramatic increase of illness in recent time.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Hormones and Heredity
    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Hormones and Heredity

    many different types of studies to examine animal behavior. By doing this, scientists are able to…

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Twin Studies
    • 1254 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Twin Studies

    Twins are important for studies of nature vs. nurture theories in psychology because they are one of the few ways to study and see results due to their shared genetics. There are studies that have been done on this topic, however not that many since it is a long term experiment and in some cases it was done without even the twins or their parents and families knowing about it happening. There are multiple existing coincidental examples and planned studies that were done in which it is shown that twins were influenced in both genetic and environmental ways. It is however hard to completely choose one side based on these studies because it seems that the answer is that both aspects are necessary and make us who we are, which is also what most scientists and psychologists agree on.…

    • 1254 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Story of DNA
    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Story of DNA

    I'm no expert, but our body grows by producing cells. They DNA code is transmitted to each cell so they all will match. If not, we would have brown hair on one side of your head and red on another or one arm would be longer than another. That is simplified…

    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More

Related Topics