Epigenesis & Differentiation in Cells
- Epigenesis is the development of differentiation patterns in the cells of multicellular organisms as it develops from a zygote
- This is determined by the genome and patterns of gene expression in an organism
- Epigenetics is the genetic control by factors other than an individual’s DNA sequence
- It involves heritable changes in gene function, without changes to the DNA sequence
- In eukaryotic cells, nuclear DNA is wrapped around proteins called histones to form chromatin
- Chromatin can be chemically modified in different ways to alter gene expression
- Methylation of DNA (chemical addition of a -CH3 group)
- Histone modification of of amino acid tails via
- Acetylation: Acetyl groups are added to histones which allows transcription as it leads to the DNA becoming more loosely packed
- Methylation: The addition of a -CH3 group
- Phosphorylation: the addition of phosphate to an organic compound
- Such modifications are called epigenetic tags and collectively, all the epigenetic tags in an organism are called the epigenome
- Like the genome, the epigenome is heritable
- Mounting evidence demonstrates that modifications to the epigenome in one generation can be passed on to the next generation at cellular or whole organism level
- The phenotype of an organism is determined by its genotype
- Since the DNA sequence is not changed by epigenetic changes, the genotype of an organism will remain the same while the phenotype changes
Examiner Tip
Epigenetics can be distinguished from mutations, both of which lead to changes in the expressed characteristics of genes. Whilst mutations affect the genetic code itself e.g. by altered nucleotide sequences, epigenetics affect the way the code is read.
Think about an identical passage of text being read by two different people, one with perfect Queen's English and the other with a very strong regional dialect. Despite the text being the same (no mutations), the effect of the dialect (epigenetics) might alter the meaning of the piece drastically to a listener.