It is well recognized that there is a surprising degree of phenotypic variation among genetically identical individuals, even when the environmental influences, in the strict sense of the word, are identical. Genetic textbooks acknowledge this fact and use different terms, such as ‘intangible variation’ or ‘developmental noise’, to describe it. We believe that this intangible variation results from the stochastic establishment of epigenetic modifications to the DNA nucleotide sequence. These modifications, which may involve cytosine methylation and chromatin remodelling, result in alterations in gene expression which, in turn, affects the phenotype of the organism. Recent evidence, from our work and that of others in mice, suggests that these epigenetic modifications, which in the past were thought to be cleared and reset on passage through the germline, may sometimes be inherited to the next generation. This is termed epigenetic inheritance, and while this process has been well recognized in plants, the recent findings in mice force us to consider the implications of this type of inheritance in mammals. At this stage we do not know how extensive this phenomenon is in humans, but it may well turn out to be the explanation for some diseases which appear to be sporadic or show only weak genetic linkage.
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Review Article|
May 08 2001
The marks, mechanisms and memory of epigenetic states in mammals
Vardhman K. RAKYAN;
Vardhman K. RAKYAN
Department of Biochemistry, G08, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
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Jost PREIS;
Jost PREIS
Department of Biochemistry, G08, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
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Hugh D. MORGAN;
Hugh D. MORGAN
Department of Biochemistry, G08, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
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Emma WHITELAW
Emma WHITELAW
1
Department of Biochemistry, G08, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
1To whom correspondence should be addressed ([email protected]).
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Publisher: Portland Press Ltd
Online ISSN: 1470-8728
Print ISSN: 0264-6021
The Biochemical Society, London ©2001
2001
Biochem J (2001) 356 (1): 1–10.
Citation
Vardhman K. RAKYAN, Jost PREIS, Hugh D. MORGAN, Emma WHITELAW; The marks, mechanisms and memory of epigenetic states in mammals. Biochem J 15 May 2001; 356 (1): 1–10. doi: https://doi.org/10.1042/bj3560001
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