Survival of the Sickest : Chapter VII (Methyl Madness)
This chapter focused on what is called epigenetic as well as methylation. Methylation changes the phenotype of your genes without changing you genes itself. Methylation only effects the way that your genes are expressed, potentially "turning off or on" genes in your DNA.
This chapter explained how the mother, father, and even grandmother of a fetus can be affected by their environment and actions. In an experiment with fat mice that carried a gene known as the "agouti" gene, scientist were able to break the long line of obesity in the mice simply by adding vitamin supplements to the pregnant mice. Also, it was found that boys who smoked prior to puberty produced more sons that were overweight. Grandmothers were also found to cause changes in the fetus. Grandmothers who smoked while pregnant effected her fetus's eggs, causing her future grandchild to have a higher chance of having asthma. All of these changes to the baby happened because of methylation and epigenetic.
The book also describes a species of lizard that can be born large or small. The only depending factor in this is whether or not the mother smelled a lizard-eating snake during the early stages of her pregnancy. Another interesting idea in humans is that more boys are born in times of goodness whereas more girls are born in times of struggle. It is believed that this is partially due to how a population thrives. Generally, a population does better with a few strong males, and a lot of females. Additionally, it is proven to be more physiologically demanding on the mother if the fetus is male, meaning that the body will automatically abort the child in times of stress.
All of these events, studies, and experiments were found to result in epigenetic, which somehow changed the was DNA was express without actually changing the DNA itself. In truth, scientists have barely scratched the surface on epigenetic and there is still much to be learned.
This chapter explained how the mother, father, and even grandmother of a fetus can be affected by their environment and actions. In an experiment with fat mice that carried a gene known as the "agouti" gene, scientist were able to break the long line of obesity in the mice simply by adding vitamin supplements to the pregnant mice. Also, it was found that boys who smoked prior to puberty produced more sons that were overweight. Grandmothers were also found to cause changes in the fetus. Grandmothers who smoked while pregnant effected her fetus's eggs, causing her future grandchild to have a higher chance of having asthma. All of these changes to the baby happened because of methylation and epigenetic.
The book also describes a species of lizard that can be born large or small. The only depending factor in this is whether or not the mother smelled a lizard-eating snake during the early stages of her pregnancy. Another interesting idea in humans is that more boys are born in times of goodness whereas more girls are born in times of struggle. It is believed that this is partially due to how a population thrives. Generally, a population does better with a few strong males, and a lot of females. Additionally, it is proven to be more physiologically demanding on the mother if the fetus is male, meaning that the body will automatically abort the child in times of stress.
All of these events, studies, and experiments were found to result in epigenetic, which somehow changed the was DNA was express without actually changing the DNA itself. In truth, scientists have barely scratched the surface on epigenetic and there is still much to be learned.