* Epigenetics of autism – the study of epigenetic effects in ASD.

The modern theory of Epigenetics suggests that Ward was correct on this issue, although old-school Darwinians continue to ridicule Larmarkianism.

* Epigenetics: Epigenetic mechanisms are means by which environmental effects alter gene expression via methods such as DNA methylation ; these are independent of and do not alter the underlying DNA sequence.

Epigenetics has many and varied potential medical applications as it tends to be multidimensional in nature.

Epigenetics.

* Epigenomics / Epigenetics: Organismal and corresponding cell specific transcriptomic regulating factors not empirically coded in the genomic sequence.

The Epigenetics of birds.

Epigenetics and evolution.

Epigenetics is one of the currently active topics in cancer research.

Epigenetics is the study of the regulation of gene expression through chemical, non-mutational changes in DNA structure.

There is increasing study of environmental influences affecting genetic factors directly but nonheritably ; see the Epigenetics article for a detailed discussion.

Waddington refers to the network of creodes carved into the hillside as an " epigenetic landscape ," meaning the formation of the body depends on not only its genetic makeup but the different ways genes are expressed in different regions of the embryo.

He expands his metaphor by describing the underside of the epigenetic landscape.

" The more deeply creodes are carved into the epigenetic landscape, the weaker the influence of genes over development.

Waddington's epigenetic landscape is a metaphor for how gene regulation modulates development.

This idea was actually based on experiment: Waddington found that one effect of mutation ( which could modulate the epigenetic landscape ) was to affect how cells differentiated.

The aberrant epigenetic landscape of the cancer cell is characterized by a global genomic hypomethylation, CpG island promoter hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes, an altered histone code for critical genes and a global loss of monoacetylated and trimethylated histone H4.

Aristotle's epigenetic view of successive life principles (" souls ") in a developing human embryo — first a vegetative and then a sensitive or animal soul, and finally an intellective or human soul, with the higher levels able to carry out the functions also of the lower levels — was the prevailing view among early Christians, including Tertullian, Augustine, and Jerome.

If food was plentiful, then diabetes mortality in the grandchildren increased, suggesting that this was a transgenerational epigenetic inheritance.

Thus, a novel mechanism for regulation of gene expression, the epigenetic silencing of genes by miRNAs, was discovered.

His interest in cancer stem cells was strongly influenced by evidence that in addition to genomic mutations, epigenetic modification of a cell may contribute to the development or progression of cancer.

DNA methylation marking chromatin, self-sustaining metabolic loops, gene silencing by RNA interference, and the three dimensional conformation of proteins ( such as prions ) are areas where epigenetic inheritance systems have been discovered at the organismic level.

Because the phenotype of a cell or individual is affected by which of its genes are transcribed, heritable transcription states can give rise to epigenetic effects.

Other epigenetic changes are mediated by the production of different splice forms of RNA, or by formation of double-stranded RNA ( RNAi ).

Fungal prions are considered epigenetic because the infectious phenotype caused by the prion can be inherited without modification of the genome.

Many teratogens exert specific effects on the fetus by epigenetic mechanisms.

Despite this early dichotomy, recent evidence in both animals and plants has suggested that there are more than two distinct heterochromatin states, and it may in fact exist in four or five ' states ', each marked by different combinations epigenetic marks.

The proposed mechanism is a part of the " epigenetic hypothesis for schizophrenia pathophysiology " formulated by a group of scientists in 2008 ( D. Grayson ; A. Guidotti ; E. Costa ).

But there are studies conflicting the main premise of the epigenetic hypothesis, and a study by Fatemi et al.

Even with nearly identical DNA, epigenetic modification, caused by differing environmental influences throughout their lives, affects which genes are switched on or off.

Additionally, epigenetic reprogramming by enforced expression of OSKM through DNA routes exists such as plasmid DNA, minicircles, transposons, episomes and DNA mulicistronic construct targeting by homologous recombination has also been demonstrated ; however, these methods suffer from the burden to potentially alter the recipient genome by gene insertion ( Ho et al., 2010 ).

For many hereditary diseases, the onset of symptoms is age related, and is affected by environmental codeterminants such as nutrition and smoking, as well as genetic cofactors and epigenetic regulation of expression:

Most biological traits ( such as height or intelligence in humans ) are multifactorial, influenced by many genes as well as environmental conditions and epigenetic expression.

A recent such study examined foraging behavior in chickens as a function of stress, concluding: Our findings suggest that unpredictable food access caused seemingly adaptive responses in feeding behavior, which may have been transmitted to the offspring by means of epigenetic mechanisms, including regulation of immune genes.

Forms of ' soft ' or epigenetic inheritance within organisms have been suggested as neo-Lamarckian in nature by such scientists as Eva Jablonka and Marion J. Lamb.

Both Xist and roX operate by epigenetic regulation of transcription through the recruitment of histone-modifying enzymes.

These data suggested that the famine experienced by the mothers caused some kind of epigenetic changes that were passed down to the next generation.

It is now generally accepted that in addition to genetic aberrations, cancer can be initiated by epigenetic changes in which gene expression is altered without genomic abnormalities.

Gene expression can be affected by the environment through epigenetic mechanisms.

RNA interference also regulate gene expression in most eukaryotes, both by epigenetic modification of promoters and by breaking down mRNA.

It has been shown that this phenomenon is mediated by an epigenetic modification of DNA known as CpG methylation.