The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance

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This is a much more sensible metaphor, but then on the same page she refers to "the DNA blueprint" as if she hadn't read what she had just written. An exhilarating exploration of an exciting new field, and a good gift for a bright biology student looking for a career choice. Bees clearly have phenomenal memories for such small creatures – they signal the whereabouts of good nectar sources by means of their famous waggle dance – and similar epigenetic mechanisms have been found in bees and humans. Not every single facet of the science is covered (no mention is made of the the modification of RNA—as opposed to DNA—by one of the key epigenetic mechanisms, for example), but epigenetics is already a large field and is growing fast.

The notion was that the genes were all and the cells that contained them were just off-the-peg bags.

If this were the only instance, it wouldn't be worth mentioning, but it's repeated over and over again, in phrases like "the genetic code, the fundamental blueprint" that leave the lay reader in danger of thinking this a good metaphor.

Biological systems may or may not be completely deterministic above the level of subatomic particles. In the first, the co-editors of this volume pull together themes from the various chapters to present a coherent conceptualization of epigenetics that is true to the original intent of Waddington but also the usage of the term in modern biology. Something suggesting Lamarckian inheritance and this is indeed what happened and has a name 'transgenerational inheritance'.It is a challenging, but really interesting read, and perhaps, as it did for me, it will change the way you think about biology! Carey’s experience of the biotechnology industry shows in her concluding remarks on the pros and cons of our growing understanding of epigenetics for drug discovery, and on understanding the impact of diet and environment on disease. Most of the time these enzymes will only add a methyl group to a C (Cytosine) that is followed by G (Guanine). DNA methylation is also important for maintaining the correct patterns of gene expression in different cell types, either for several decades in the case of our long-lived neurons or in all daughters of a stem cell in a tissue that is constantly replaced such as skin. According to Carey, a "phenomenon is likely to be influenced by epigenetic alterations in DNA and its accompanying proteins" if there is genetic identity and phenotypic variability or if an organism continues to be influenced by an event long after this initiating event has occurred.