Article Review (replaces Culminating Project)
please see the attachment to answer this question
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BIOL 1310
Article Review (replaces Culminating Project)
On Blackboard, I have posted the following article:
van Otterdijk, S.D., and Michels, K.B. (2016). Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in mammals: how good is the evidence? FASEB Journal, (30), p. 2457-2465.
This is a review article that summarizes a number of research studies related to epigenetic inheritance and the state of the research in that area as of 2016.Please refer to the section on epigenetic inheritance in your textbook on page 217.This assignment is due no later than the day/time of your in-class final exam.
You will not understand all of the terms or ideas covered in this article, and that’s ok.For the questions below, please refer to the appropriate sections of the article as indicated in order to answer each question.
Please type your answers on a separate sheet of paper.Do not put your answers in the spaces below.
- Using information provided on pages 2457-2458, discuss:
- what epigenetics is and why it is thought to be important
- what are the primary mechanisms involved in epigenetic inheritance
- what sorts of cellular changes may occur as a result of epigenetics
- Referring to page 2458, discuss how epigenetics might have evolutionary influences.
- Also on page 2458, there is a discussion of intrauterine exposures and how that might affect the fetus’s phenotype.What are some known exposures that affect the fetus in this way?
- Referring to page 2459, discuss how/why genomic imprinting may be the strongest evidence for transgenerational epigenetic inheritance.
- On pages 2462-2463, summarize the main points of the authors’ discussion and conclusions.Does transgenerational epigenetic inheritance exist?What might be some limitations of studying this in humans?
- Using the RMU Library database system, find a primary literature article that is related to this topic.Provide the full citation for this article as the answer to this question.
Solution Preview
Epigenetics refers to meiotically and mitotically heritable prospective for gene expression which does not entail variation of the DNA sequence. Notably, the Epigenetic events are important in coordinating critical biological processes such as genomic imprinting, cell differentiation and X-chromosome inactivation (3–5) (Van Otterdijk & Michels, 2016). The epigenetic mechanisms mediate various gene expression profiles to enable the generation of different cells and tissues that are necessary for multicellular organisms. As such, the cells in an organism contain similar information. However, the different cell types can differ in their function, phenotype and expression profiles. While the genetic information does not change throughout the organisms’ lifespan, the epigenetic signatures are plastic thereby inferring that they can be modified in response to behavioral and environmental responses such as air pollution and smoking.
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