[url]http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130509133155.htm[/url]
[url]http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130509123647.htm[/url]
[QUOTE][B]Scientists have long known that control mechanisms known collectively as "epigenetics" play a critical role in human development, but they did not know precisely how alterations in this extra layer of biochemical instructions in DNA contribute to development.[/B]
Now, in the first comprehensive analysis of epigenetic changes that occur during development, a multi-institutional group of scientists, including several from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, has discovered how modifications in key epigenetic markers influence human embryonic stem cells as they differentiate into specialized cells in the body. The findings were published May 9 in Cell.
"Our findings help us to understand processes that occur during early human development and the differentiation of a stem cell into specialized cells, which ultimately form tissues in the body," says co-lead author Joseph R. Ecker, a professor and director of Salk's Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory and holder of the Salk International Council Chair in Genetics.[/QUOTE]
Two articles discussing the same findings in different ways, one's a bit easier to read for the common folk.
Isn't the mechanisms of epigenetics basically the processes by which genes within a single cell are turned on and off?
[QUOTE=Karmah;40584747]Isn't the mechanisms of epigenetics basically the processes by which genes within a single cell are turned on and off?[/QUOTE]
the problem is that its on a body wide scale and jumps generations for seemingly no reason.
D:
[QUOTE=Karmah;40584747]Isn't the mechanisms of epigenetics basically the processes by which genes within a single cell are turned on and off?[/QUOTE]
Yes, but what factors that control cell-level gene expression are vast. While we understand how gene expression is controlled epigenetically, we don't know much about how epigenetics itself is regulated within an organism.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
