Grandma's Curse; Epigenetics and Health  

Oleh:

[s.n]

Jenis: Article from Bulletin/Magazine
Dalam koleksi: The Economist (http://search.proquest.com/) vol. 405 no. 8809 (Nov. 2012), page 78.
Topik: Deoxyribonucleic Acid--DNA; Generations; Smoking; Nicotine; Genetic Research; Cellular Biology; Medical Research

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Perpustakaan Pusat (Semanggi) Nomor Panggil: EE29.74 Non-tandon: 1 (dapat dipinjam: 0) Tandon: tidak ada

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Strictly speaking, it refers to the regulation of gene expression by the chemical modification of DNA, or of the histone proteins in which DNA is usually wrapped. This modification is either the addition of methyl groups (a carbon atom and three hydrogens) to the DNA or of acetyl groups (two carbons, three hydrogens and an oxygen) to the histones. Methylation switches genes off. Acetylation switches them on. Since, in a multicellular organism, different cells need different genes to be active, such regulation is vital. What has got a lot of people excited, though, is the idea that epigenetic switches might be transmitted down the generations. Some see this as contrary to Darwinism. The idea that acquired characteristics can be inherited at all is still an important and novel one, and a worrying example of the phenomenon has been published this week in BioMed Central Medicine. The study in question, by Virender Rehan of the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute, and his colleagues, was of the intergenerational effects of nicotine.

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