Expanding Traditional Definition of a Gene
Expands Traditional Definition A Gene
Expanding the traditional definition of a gene through epigenetics:
Changes to the human gene through exposure to external forces in the environment
Increasingly, the field of epigenetics is challenging traditional conceptions of what constitutes the human gene. While it has long been acknowledged that parents can pass their DNA onto their offspring, epigenetics acknowledges the potential for changes in human DNA which subsequently causes a change in the genetic composition of the child. Epigenetics acknowledges "the external environment's effects upon genes can influence disease, and some of these effects can be inherited in humans" (Simmons 2008). While it is difficult to design a study to test environmental factors, historical and experimental research does support this hypothesis. "For example, Swedish scientists recently conducted investigations examining whether nutrition affected the death rate associated with cardiovascular disease and diabetes and whether these effects were passed from parents to their children and grandchildren" (Simmons 2008). Such insightful research holds the potential to explain why, for example, there may be escalating rates of diabetes and heart disease in this generation, versus the last generations. "Three systems, including DNA methylation, RNA-associated silencing and histone modification, are used to initiate and sustain epigenetic silencing" in human DNA (Egger 2004: 457). This paper will specifically discuss the phenomenon of epigenetics and its impact upon the MC4R gene, the FMR1 gene, and molecular RNA.
Epigenetics, weight, and disease
An unintentional study of the potential for epigenetics to influence disease and body weight was found during the infamous Dutch famine in which large numbers of the Dutch population were starved during World War II. The babies born to pregnant mothers who survived the Dutch famine showed...
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