Epigenetics: padlocks and keys during DNA reading

Abstract

Until the middle of the last century, we knew that the development and the phenotypic characteristics of organisms depended on the dna sequence of genes. Also, propensity/susceptibility to illness were only attributed to changes in the dna sequence. Nevertheless, in the last decades special attention has been paid to a new type of regulation in the cell: epigenetics. This branch of biology studies how the external factors regulate gene expression without affecting the nucleotide sequence. This regulation is based on the chemical groups that can act as keys or padlocks to open or block gene expression. Interestingly, the environment is the main epigenetic regulator, because external conditions influence which genes are locked or opened for expression. Therefore, the food we eat, things we perceive and where we live, regulate the way genes are expressed throughout our lives.

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