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Epigenetics, more than
genes A PBS Special, broadcast last night, "Ghost in Your Genes", discusses the dramatic role that gene switches (called epigenes) play in inheritance -and- in behavioral impacts on gene switches. Web page http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/genes/ This is a rather complex topic, and you may not be able to pick up on its significance by reading the following, but it's my best first effort at trying to explain the manner in which gene switches function, as best I understand it based on my initial exposure to the topic. To sum up a few of the early findings: o The inherited switches you received from your paternal grandfather and grandmother and your maternal grandfather and grand- mother were impacted by conditions pre- sent at different stages of their development, and those conditions impacted the manner in which your own gene switches (epi- genes) behave o In rats, the degree of nurturing a mother gives her offspring directly impacts the gene switches which determine how the offspring react to stress during their lives; in theory, this resembles how behavioral abnormalities (such as rejection, child abuse) would result in changes to gene switches which adversely impact the health and behavior of children over their entire lives o Identical twins, with identical genes, at times have dissimilar genetic conditions, explainable by the manner in which gene switches differ even among individuals with identical genes o Gene switches are impacted by aging and by environment, including (as indicated above) the social support/neglect/abuse environment a child is raised in - - - In essence, with the impact of environment on genetic switches, the Nature + Nurture equa- tion includes the impact of Nurture, not only on the child, directly, but also on the child's ancestors and their ancestors' gene switches which have been passed down to the child. - - -
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