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epigenetics
Nov. 4th, 2021 08:45 amepigenetics (ep-i-juh-NET-iks) - n., the study of heritable changes in gene function that do not involve changes in DNA sequence; the study of the processes involved in the genetic development of an organism, especially the activation and deactivation of genes.
Some genes, when they get turned on or off, this state carries over into descendent cells or even descendent organisms -- which is how, in an embryo, once a cell has differentiated into, say, a muscle cell, when it divides neither descendent cell suddenly becomes a neuron. The word was coined in 1942 by developmental biologist C. H. Waddington as a blend of epigenesis and genetics; however, the current meanings didn't settle out until the 1990s, and the first and most formal definition wasn't codified until 2008.
---L.
Some genes, when they get turned on or off, this state carries over into descendent cells or even descendent organisms -- which is how, in an embryo, once a cell has differentiated into, say, a muscle cell, when it divides neither descendent cell suddenly becomes a neuron. The word was coined in 1942 by developmental biologist C. H. Waddington as a blend of epigenesis and genetics; however, the current meanings didn't settle out until the 1990s, and the first and most formal definition wasn't codified until 2008.
---L.
