Posted by Tom Okure, Ph.D
Dated January 30, 2016
Epigenetics Research....Could what you do in your lifetime affect the lives of your grandchildren many decades from now?
The standard scientific view has been that the human DNA transmits
all our heritable information and that nothing an individual does in their
lifetime will be biologically passed to their children.
Background and Epigenetics Research
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| EPIGENETICS |
Epigenetics evolved as a broad research field in the mid-twentieth
century by famous scientists including Conrad H. Waddington and Ernst Hadorn
that concentrated on combining genetics and developmental biology. In 1942, Waddington
coined the term epigenetics, supposedly derived from the Greek word
“epigenesis” which originally described the influence of genetic processes on
development.
In plain language, the term epigenetics refers to the study
of biological mechanisms that can switch genes on and off. Scientist say epigenetics controls genes.
Certain conditions in our environment can supposedly cause genes to be silenced
or expressed over time. Stated differently, it means our genes can be turned
off (becoming dormant) or turned on (becoming active). Scientist say epigenetics
is everywhere in our environment in what we eat, where we reside and who we interact
with, when we exercise and sleep and even as we age.
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| Do our genes have a 'Memory? |
The events in our lives (good or bad) eventually
can cause chemical modifications around our genes which can turn those genes on
or off over time. In certain diseases such as cancer or Alzheimer’s, various
genes can be switched into the opposite state, away from the normal/healthy
state. Epigenetics, is the study, in the field of
genetics, of cellular and physiological phenotypic trait variations that are
caused by external or environmental factors that switch genes on and off and
affect how cells read genes instead of being caused by changes in the DNA
sequence. (Wikipedia)
Epigenetics research seeks to describe dynamic alterations
in the transcriptional such as:
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| Could the genes of our children be shaped by our ancestors' life experiences? |
Could our genes and that of our children be shaped in part by
our ancestors' life experiences? Do our genes have a 'Memory'? Does the lives
of our forbearers or grandparents: the food they ate, the air they breathed,
and their environment and even what they saw directly impact our lives decades
later, in spite of the fact that we never experienced these things
ourselves.
According to the new insights of behavioral epigenetics,
traumatic experiences in our past, or in our recent ancestors’ past leave
molecular scars adhering to our DNA (See Grandmas experiences leave epigenetic mark on your genes). In short, grandparents of Jews who were chased from their Russian shtetls;
Chinese whose grandparents lived during the devastations of the Cultural
Revolution; young African immigrants whose ancestors survived massacres; adults of all races who grew up with parents who are alcoholic or abusive potentially have just
more than memories embedded within their genes. Is that weird or awesome science? You decide.
Read More:
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