Epigenetics

Epigenetics can be defined as any aspect other than DNA sequence that influences the development of an organism. These changes may be phenotypic or genetic caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence and may remain throughout the life of an individual and may also be hereditary in nature. These non-genetic factors cause the genes of an individual to behave or express differently. Cellular differentiation is such an example of epigenetic change where during morphogenesis, totipotent stem cells gives rise to various pluripotent cell lines of the embryo which in turn become fully differentiated cells this is because the chromatin proteins associated with DNA may be activated or silenced. This accounts for why the differentiated cells in a multi-cellular organism express only the genes that are necessary for their own activity. Epigenetics has many and varied potential uses in medical applications, modern evolutionary synthesis, genomic imprinting and related disorders, transgenerational epigenetic observations, as well as in cancer and developmental abnormalities.