Author: Eccleston Alex A
From: Nature
Date: 2007-5-24
Volume: 447
Pages: 395-
Author: Bird Adrian A
From: Nature
Date: 2007-5-24
Volume: 447
Pages: 396-398
Geneticists study the gene; however, for epigeneticists, there is no obvious 'epigene'. Nevertheless, during the past year, more than 2,500 articles, numerous scientific meetings and a new journal were devoted to the subject of epigenetics. It encompasses some of the most exciting contemporary biology and is portrayed by the popular press as a revolutionary new science — an antidote to the idea that we are hard-wired by our genes. So what is epigenetics?
Phenotypic plasticity and the epigenetics of human disease.
Author: Feinberg Andrew AP
From: Nature
Date: 2007-5-24
Volume: 447
Pages: 433-440
It is becoming clear that epigenetic changes are involved in human disease as well as during normal development. A unifying theme of disease epigenetics is defects in phenotypic plasticity — cells' ability to change their behaviour in response to internal or external environmental cues. This model proposes that ... common diseases with late-onset phenotypes involve interactions between the epigenome, the genome and the environment. Increased understanding of epigenetic-disease mechanisms could lead to disease-risk stratification for targeted intervention and to targeted therapies.
Epigenetics and twins: three variations on the theme.
Author: Petronis Arturas A
From: Trends in genetics
Date: 2006-7-1
Volume: 22
Pages: 347-350
...The era of twin studies ... is not over: recent epigenetic and global gene expression studies suggest that the most interesting findings in twin-based research are still to come. The increasing realization of the influence of epigenetics in phenotypic outcomes means that the molecular mechanisms behind phenotypic differences in genetically identical organisms can be explored. Analyses of epigenetic twin differences and similarities might yet challenge the fundamental principles of complex biology, primarily the dogma that complex phenotypes result from DNA sequence variants interacting with the environment.
Epigenetics: A Landscape Takes Shape.
Author: Goldberg Aaron AD
From: Cell
Date: 2007223
Volume: 128
Pages: 635-638
...cellular differentiation may be considered an epigenetic phenomenon, largely governed by changes in what Waddington described as the “epigenetic landscape� rather than alterations in genetic inheritance (Waddington,1957; Figure 1). More specifically, epigenetics may be defined as the study of any potentially stable and, ideally, heritable change in gene expression or cellular phenotype that occurs without changes in Watson-Crick base-pairing of DNA (p. 635).
Genetics and Epigenetics--Nature's Pen-and-Pencil Set
Author: Gosden Roger RG
From: The New England journal of medicine
Date: 2007-2-15
Volume: 356
Pages: 731-733
The sequence of the four nucleotides of the genetic code is like an indelible ink that, with rare exceptions, is faithfully transcribed from cell to cell and from generation to generation. But on top of this code lies another one, literally “epigenetic,� which is represented by methyl groups added to the DNA base cytosine, as well as covalent changes in histone proteins around which the DNA is coiled. This epigenetic information is more like a code written in pencil in the margins around the DNA (p. 731).