In addition to the resource below, please see the book below. It is outstanding
Introducing Epigenetics: A Graphic Guide
(Part of the Graphic Guides Series and Introducing Graphic Guides Series)
By Cath Ennis. Release Date: February 2017Edition Description
Epigenetics is the most exciting field in biology today, developing our understanding of how and why we inherit certain traits, develop diseases and age, and evolve as a species.
This non-fiction comic book introduces us to genetics, cell biology and the fascinating science of epigenetics, which is rapidly filling in the gaps in our knowledge, allowing us to make huge advances in medicine. We’ll look at what identical twins can teach us about the epigenetic effects of our environment and experiences, why certain genes are ‘switched on’ or off at various stages of embryonic development, and how scientists have reversed the specialization of cells to clone frogs from a single gut cell.
In Introducing Epigenetics, Cath Ennis and Oliver Pugh pull apart the double helix, examining how the epigenetic building blocks and messengers that interpret and edit our genes help to make us, well, us.
Today, I review and link to Active Motif: Enabling Epigenetics Research‘s Epigenetics 101: Complete Guide to Understanding Epigenetics. All that follows is from this resource.
Epigenetics is the study of how the environment, behavior, and other mechanisms cause changes to the genome that can contribute to the regulation of gene expression and other biological processes without changing to the underlying primary DNA sequences. These epigenetic mechanisms are mediated by chemical modifications of DNA, proteins (most commonly histones), and RNA. Epigenetic modifications are often reversible and can sometimes be heritable.
This article provides an introduction to the world of epigenetics, covers the history of this field in biology, discusses the factors and players that play a role in this process, and highlights which biological processes are influenced by epigenetic mechanisms.
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