The regulation of gene expression through epigenetic modifications provides a dynamic route through which environmental experiences can lead to persistent changes in cellular phenotype. This plasticity plays an important role in mediating cellular differentiation and the potential stability of these modifications can lead to persistent and heritable variations in gene expression. Environmentall...

The term epigenetics was first used to refer to the complex interactions between the genome and the environment that are involved in development and differentiation in higher organisms. Today, this term is used to refer to heritable alterations that are not due to changes in DNA sequence. Rather, epigenetic modifications, or tags, such as DNA methylation and histone modification, alter DNA acce...

The term epigenetics was first used to refer to the complex interactions between the genome and the environment that are involved in development and differentiation in higher organisms. Today, this term is used to refer to heritable alterations that are not due to changes in DNA sequence. Rather, epigenetic modifications, or tags, such as DNA methylation and histone modification, alter DNA acce...

for a long time, scientists have tried to describe disorders just by genetic or environmental factors. however, the role of epigenetics in human diseases has been considered from a half of century ago. in the last decade, this subject has attracted many interests, especially in complicated disorders such as behavior plasticity, memory, cancer, autoimmune disease, and addiction as well as neurod...

expresses a different set of genes. The proper expression of the gene set for a given cell type is regulated and maintained through epigenetic mechanisms1–4. Two epigenetic mechanisms are responsible for the establishment and maintenance of cell properties in higher eukaryotes: DNA methylation and histone modification. Generally, the genetic information encoded within a DNA sequence tends to be...

The brisk pace of research into the intricacies of gene regulation, which includes the study of epigenetic mechanisms, is rapidly expanding our understanding of the ways in which environmental influences can affect these processes. Research has revealed that environmental exposures influence biology and health among individuals by modifying epigenetic markings that are mitotically stable, thus ...

Genome-wide association studies have thus far failed to explain the observed heritability of complex human diseases. This is referred to as the "missing heritability" problem. However, these analyses have usually neglected to consider a role for epigenetic variation, which has been associated with many human diseases. We extend models of epigenetic inheritance to investigate whether environment...