Biotech and Genetics
Epigenetic’s
Kaiden Hofmann – March 9, 2018
About Epigenetic’s
What is an Epigenetic “is the study of heritable changes in gene function that do not involve changes in the DNA sequence.” (WIKI description) How epigenetic’s affect the epigenome. What that means is that the epigenome is the physical structure of the genome and the DNA is first wrapped around the proteins and is covered by chemical tags. Unlike the DNA, the epigenome is changeable by outside influences (like stress, and diet.) The epigenome adapts according to our changing environment. How the epigenome is affected by the outside world is by not having enough methanol group attached to your DNA structure. Methanol group is a part of a process the nutrients we extract from food enter methanol pathways where they are changed into nutrients for our body to use. That’s why having a high diet in this department can cause you to have a heather life.
Folic acid, B vitamins, and SAM-e (S-Adenosyl methionine are components in the creating methanol.
Advancements in epigenetic’s changing the world
We have learned that epigenetics is hugely not only related to physical appearance but have a huge impact on aging. When someone says “don’t eat that you’ll die earlier”; it’s absolutely true, it’s just where talking about it from a molecular standpoint. How your epigenome does this is by if the child was not fed enough of the nutrients needed for enough methanol to be created during the pregnancy phase, the child would be more likely to be prone to obesity, and overweight. It is still possible to regain the loss methanol that is needed to go through a couple of generations to fix. How it is connected to aging is how methanol is part of the Replication connected to diet and how you eat, is so that what you eat hugely determines if you live longer, (saying if you don’t have any diseases passed in the family.)
That’s why studying and the knowledge already may lead to in the future where we are able to manipulate the epigenome and we might have the capability of living substantially longer.
This photo shows two mice that came from the same mother, and each mouse was fed different diets. Mouse A (brown mouse) was fed a methyl-rich diet well Mouse B (yellow mouse) was fed a complete unmethylated diet. Mouse A was brown and healthy, well mouse B the (yellow mouse) was obese and prone to diabetes and cancer. When mouse A was pregnant mouse a made healthy brown mice. When the mouse was fed the methyl-rich diet her children most where brown and healthy. This showed how methyl was able to change and influence health in the mouse; then mirroring onto their kids.
How Epigenomes can affect genes
This photo is of Royal Jelly, which is filled with a portion rich substance, created from the glances of the worker bees. The queen bee is created by putting a larva inside the Royal Jelly to absorbed the nutrients inside. This changes the state of the larva to be developing a larger abdomen for laying eggs, as well as a queens attitude. The queen is fed this Royal Jelly her entire lifespan and will continue to do so until death. How the Royal Jelly is able to do this is by negating certain aspects of the key gene that will determine what the bee will become. It’s called Dnmt3 which codes for an enzyme that negates Queen Gene. So genetically every is capable of being a queen bee but without the Royale, Jelly to negate that trait they cannot become a queen bee.
IN CONCLUSION
With epigenetic’s the epigenome control’s the health, age, physical appearance, and causes genetics to turn on and off. It also will affect future offspring’s health and genetics.
Sites/Sources
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3227536/
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/7/e1600584
https://www.wired.com/2015/09/royal-jelly-isnt-makes-queen-bee-queen-bee/
BY: Kaiden Hofmann