Explaining inter-individual variability in phenotype: Is epigenetics up to the challenge?

The hypothesis that environmental factors alter somatically heritable epigenetic marks and change long-term patterns of gene expression is an exciting possibility in human disease research. Because most common diseases, and many quantitative traits, are influenced by both genetic and environmental f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEpigenetics Vol. 5; no. 1; pp. 16 - 19
Main Authors Turan, Nahid, Katari, Sunita, Coutifaris, Christos, Sapienza, Carmen
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Taylor & Francis 01.01.2010
Subjects
Binding
Biology
Bioscience
Calcium
Cancer
Cell
CpG Islands
Cycle
DNA Methylation
Environment
Epigenesis, Genetic
Genetic Variation
Genome, Human
Genotype
Humans
Landes
Models, Genetic
Organogenesis
Phenotype
Proteins
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
RNA, Messenger - metabolism
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Summary:The hypothesis that environmental factors alter somatically heritable epigenetic marks and change long-term patterns of gene expression is an exciting possibility in human disease research. Because most common diseases, and many quantitative traits, are influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, environmentally induced changes in epigenetic structures can provide a mechanistic link between genes and environment. We believe that inter-individual differences in the epigenetic modification of genes will explain a much greater fraction of inter-individual phenotypic variation than differences in genotype, alone.
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ISSN:1559-2294
1559-2308
DOI:10.4161/epi.5.1.10557