Epigenetics: The sins of the father

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Today I want to share with you an interesting review article that came out in Nature.com last March.

Maybe some of you have played the video game Assassin's Creed. If so, the term "genetic memory" may sound familiar to you. In the game, some researchers discovered that we actually carry the memories of our ancestors, and so they developed a machine that could look for those memories and revive the life events of our ancestors. That's why Desmond could "see" Altair's or Ezio's life.

Epigenetics is actually not too far from that idea.

Over the past decade, scientists have discovered that genes are not the only thing we inherit from our parents. There is another layer of information of top of that, and that's why it is called "epi"genetics (epi=over).

Some early reports explained that environmental factors such as stress, air pollution, starvation, etc, could affect gene expression by turning on or off certain genes. But it did not stop there: those changes could actually be inherited for at least two generations. So for instance, if a parent smokes, this can alter gene expression and increase the risk of having kids of above average weight. The children of that smoker parent can in turn transmit that same genetic change to their own kids!

Studies in people have been, of course, sociological. Following cohorts of individuals over time or analyzing records. Studies in animals such as mice have been more "invasive" and have shown results that are even more striking.


Here is the article. It's written in quite simple terms, give it a try if you want ;) Hope you enjoy it!
Let me know if you have questions, I will try to answer them ^^


And here is some great art I think illustrates this topic very well. Thank you to all the awesome artists!
inheritance by sophiaazhou <da:thumb id="477581347"/>  memories by TheNightSheDied  Memories by SilverPK  Desktopography 2014 - Remembrance by Jesar  Epigenetics by Kneekee  Maleta de Recuerdos by cande-knd  The Birth of Music by JeanFan  Meiosis by VelvetRain  Fading Memories by scheinbar
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Gege16's avatar
Good one! Genetics is a really interesting discipline and epigenetics is one of its areas that are not too well known for the majority of the people, is good having people who spread information on internet! I remember when i did read about this and other "kinda-weird " topics of genetics and systematics for the first time on Campbell's Biology
 book some years ago... it was hella mindblowing!!😍😱