Epigenetics

Genes Change Our Lives and Our Lives Change Our Genes, author Sharon Moalem uses a concoction of historical happenings, real-life experiences, and patient case history to portray two main biological concepts: deviations from Mendelian genetics and epigenetics (Moalem, 2014). In regards to the AP Biology curriculum, these two concepts relate, respectively, to the third and fourth big ideas that make-up the course’s framework. The third big idea in the AP Biology curriculum declares that, “Living…

1) What does it mean when we say that humans are biocultural organisms? Describe what that term means and use an example to illustrate your point. Humans are biocultural organisms due to our ability to adapt and create culture. Humans all have the same make up of internal organs and external limbs but that doesn’t make us all the same. Culture shapes the world and how it has been brought up since the beginning. We are all very different in our own ways, weather it is color of skin, height,…

Changes in Tissue Homeostasis of the Elderly That Result in Altered Cognitive; Motor Abilities. As we age, homeostasis is harder to achieve within all of our cells. The cardiac muscle tissue and the walls of the blood vessels thicken, decreasing the amount of oxygen and nutrients that is pumped out to the entire body. The thickness of the blood vessels makes it hard for nutrients to enter the other tissues body, and for wastes to leave these tissues. Water is also harder to retain…

investigated parathyroid tumor series including both benign and malignant cases, often finding a consistent overlap of the clinical, genetic and epigenetic features between the two entities. Nonetheless, benign and malignant parathyroid lesions differ in genetic and epigenetic aspects. Here, we focused the attention on PCas characterizing their clinical, genetic and epigenetic…

during these stages of life. However, the resulting data are contradicting, including reports with demonstrated benefit for mothers [23], offspring [24], or both [25]. Moreover, the significance of regulatory T cells, especially in regards to the epigenetic properties of these cells during the mentioned immunologic processes is not elucidated…

lives of Native Americans; this concept is referred to as historical trauma. Historical trauma or intergenerational trauma has been proven to affect offsprings, not only psychologically, environmentally, or by social means but also biologically. Epigenetics is described as things that are passed on other than…

are expressed. The study in this particular field is called epigenetics. In specific, epigenetics is “[t]he study of the chemical modification of specific genes or gene-associated proteins of an organism […] [that] can be inherited and are influenced by environmental factors” (Merriam-Webster Online). To simply define, epigenetics explains how similar genes in various people can be expressed in diverse ways. In the documentary, epigenetics was used in a study to learn the effects the chemicals…

in nature and it may be due to the fact of the epigenetics in the womb effecting each twin’s final phenotype. Then of course, other environmental aspects could affect the phenotype of the twins. For instance, one twin could catch a virus, which leads to cancer, and further changes there phenotype from their identical twin. These epigenetic differences become acquired over the twin’s lifetime and hence, they are not identical biologically. Epigenetic markers vary widely from one person to another…

Although, Guerrini and Pinker articulate genetics, environment and gene-environment factors in behavior, Guerrini believes that epigenetic factors play an essential role in interconnecting genes and environment. Epigenetics is the process of modulation gene expressions without changing the DNA sequence. Furthermore, activating the reward system by modifying the chromatin structure to enhance pathways that lead to addictive…

Developmental theories are commonly utilized to provide a framework for understanding children’s behavior (Miller, 2011). Among these theories are John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory and Erik Erikson’s theory on psychosocial development. Bowlby’s Attachment theory explains how children develop an attachment to another individual. The term attachment is described as a dynamic relationship that is formed through the experience of interactions with others (Miller, 2011). On the other hand, Erikson’s…