the.com/epigenetics
same script, different director's cut — your genes don't change, their volume knobs do.
means the study of heritable changes in gene activity that happen without altering the underlying DNA sequence itself.
from coined by conrad waddington in the 1940s from greek epi- meaning 'on top of' plus genetics — he pictured a marble rolling down a landscape of valleys, its path shaped by forces layered above the genes themselves.
identical twins divergethey get more epigenetically different with age.
famine studydutch hunger winter grandchildren showed altered gene markers decades later.
marks are reversiblediet, stress, and drugs can add or erase them.
queen bee secretroyal jelly alone triggers her entirely different gene expression.
for instance
agouti mice — same dna, but diet turns pups yellow-fat or lean-brown.
dutch hunger winter — 1944-45 famine altered grandchildren's metabolism gene markers.
honeybee queens — royal jelly reprograms a genetically identical larva into royalty.
identical twin studies — mario fraga's 2005 study showed diverging methylation with age.