Epigenetics? – What is Epigenetics? – Epigenome NOE

In brief

Epigenetics has always been all the weird and wonderful things that cant be explained by genetics.Denise Barlow (Vienna, Austria)

DNA is just a tape carrying information, and a tape is no good without a player. Epigenetics is about the tape player.Bryan Turner (Birmingham, UK)

I would take a picture of a computer and say that the hard disk is like DNA, and then the programmes are like the epigenome. You can access certain information from the hard disk using the programmes on the computer. But there are certain password protected areas and those which are open. I would say were trying to understand why there are passwords for certain regions and why other regions are open.Jrn Walter (Saarland, Germany)

There is around 2m of DNA in a nucleus of only a few micrometers. We are trying to learn about the mechanisms whereby the DNA gets accessed given the tiny volume of the nucleus.Gunter Reuter (Halle, Germany)

Information management in the nucleus means that some of the genetic information is very very tightly packaged in the genome. Then there is genetic information that has to be on and active all the time, house-keeping genes for example. So epigenetics is a bit like information management at home, something that you need all the time you will not store away, but your old school records you keep packed in boxes in the attic.Peter Becker (Munich, Germany)

The difference between genetics and epigenetics can probably be compared to the difference between writing and reading a book. Once a book is written, the text (the genes or DNA: stored information) will be the same in all the copies distributed to the interested audience. However, each individual reader of a given book may interpret the story slightly differently, with varying emotions and projections as they continue to unfold the chapters. In a very similar manner, epigenetics would allow different interpretations of a fixed template (the book or genetic code) and result in different read-outs, dependent upon the variable conditions under which this template is interrogated.Thomas Jenuwein (Vienna, Austria)

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Epigenetics? - What is Epigenetics? - Epigenome NOE