Epigenetics
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Lab 2: EpigeneticsName: Jonathan Visentin Lab Date: 09/08/2016Goal: Today’s activity will help you gain a better understanding of the interplay of your genetics and environmental factors that can affect the expression of your genetics. For many years, scientists believed that our physiology was solely a function of what genes we had inherited from our parents. But in recent years, scientists are learning about our epigenome;explore this website →
How do identical twins’ genetic code compare to each other at birth and at age 60?How do identical twins’ epigenomes compare to each other at birth and at age 60? Explain your answer.Chromosome 3 pairs in each set of twins are digitally superimposed. One twins epigenetic tags are dyed red and the other twins tags are dyed green. When red and green overlap, that region shows up as yellow. The 50-year old twins have more epigenetic tags in different places than do 3-year-old twins.Now click on “Lick Your Rats” and read the text at the top of the page regarding rats grooming their pups. Now click on the “Go” button under the box with the rat. After listening to the audio about the GR gene, click on the “Start” button under the rat. Try being a good mother rat (lots of grooming) and a more neglectful mother (little grooming).What is the GR gene?The Glucocorticoid Receptor (GR) Helps Shut Down the Stress ResponseHow effect does more or less grooming have on a rat pup?Less: Pup’s GR gene will impact on its adult personality. (inactive, hard time relaxing after stress)More:Pup will have an easy time relaxing after stressCan epigenetic patterns be reversed? Explain and give an example.The term has evolved to include any process that alters gene activity without changing the DNA sequence, and leads to modifications that can be transmitted to daughter cells (although experiments show that some epigenetic changes can be reversed). The researchers found four times as many differentially expressed genes between a pair of 50-year-old twins compared to 3-year-old twins, and the 50-year-old twin with more DNA hypomethylation and histone hyperacetylation (the epigenetic changes usually associated with transcriptional activity) had the higher number of overexpressed genes. The degree of epigenetic change therefore was directly linked with the degree of change in genetic function.(Web,