If epimutations can happen, the same effect should turn up in other genes. Martin’s colleague Catherine Suter of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Sydney is studying whether melanoma patients have epimutations in genes associated with the cancer. It is also conceivable that epimutations could play a role in some cases of autism, Beaudet says.

Researchers agree they are just scratching the surface of understanding the role of epigenetics in health and disease. The NIH Roadmap Project should help by allowing them to compare models of disease with reference samples. In effect, “we’re trying to figure out how we work,” says epigenetics researcher Randy Jirtle of Duke University. “It’s an amazingly huge project, and it’ll never go away.”

2 Comments

1. 1. ramesam 09:34 PM 8/9/10

   Does this give scope for the existence of Free Will?
   
   If the genome is the destiny, epigenome is what you get by the exercise of Free Will -- by a choice of your environment, behavioral and thought pattern, food etc.

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2. 2. Dov Henis 03:48 AM 3/24/12

   Epigenomics?
   From
   http://universe-life.com/2011/12/13/21st-century-science-whence-and-whither/
   5. Natural Selection is a trait of organisms, life?
   No. Natural selection is ubiquitous for ALL mass formats, all spin arrays. It derives from the expansion of the universe. All mass formats, regardless of size and type, from black holes to the smallest particles, strive to increase their constrained energy in attempt to postpone their own reconversion to energy, to the energy that fuels cosmic expansion.
   6. Life is an enigma?
   Life is just another type of mass array, a self-replicating mass array. Earth life is a replicating RNAs mass. It has always been and still is an RNA world. ALL Earth’s organisms are evolved RNAs, evolved for maintaining-enhancing Earth’s biosphere, for prolonging RNAs survival.
   7. Cells are Earth-life’s primal organisms?
   NO. Earth’s life day one was the day on which RNA began replicating. RNAs, genes, are ORGANISMS. And so are their evolved templates, (RNA and DNA) genomes, ORGANISMS, as evidenced by life’s chirality and by life’s sleep.
   8. Circadian Schmircadian sleep origin?
   Sleep is inherent for life via the RNAs, the primal Earth ORGANISMS originated and originally active only under direct sunlight, in their pre-biometabolism genesis era.
   9. Epigenetics are heritable gene functions changes not involving changes in DNA sequence?
   The “heritable or enduring changes” are epiDNAtics, not epigenetics. Alternative splicing is not epigenetics, even if/when not involving alteration of the DNA sequence. Earth life is an RNA world.
   10.Genetics drive biology and culture modifications?
   NO. It is culture that modifies genetics, not genetics that modifies culture. Culture modifies genetics simply via the evolutionary natural selection process of the RNA ORGANISMS. Likewise many natural genetic changes are due to aging and/or circumstantial effects on the genes and/or genomes ORGANISMS, similar to aging and/or evolutionary processes in monocell communities or in multicelled organisms.
   SCIENCE SHOULD UNFREEZE. SCIENCE SHOULD ADJUST ITS VISION, COMPREHENSION AND CONCEPTS.
   Dov Henis (Comments From 22nd Century)
   Seed of Human-Chimp Genomes Diversity
   http://dovhenis.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/seed-of-human-chimp-genomes-diversity/
   

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