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Over recent decades, scientists have made various discoveries about DNA methylation and how vital it is to a number of cellular processes such as embryonic development, X-chromosome inactivation, genomic imprinting, gene suppression, carcinogenesis and chromosome stability. Researchers have linked abnormal DNA methylation to several adverse outcomes, including human diseases.

At least 140 alternative RNA nucleotide forms exist. On mRNA, the most common is the methylation of adenosine on the N6 position (m6A).

Graham Williams at the University of Huddersfield, UK, has a different way - to look for modifications to the twins' DNA that have come about as a result of their lifestyles. Such epigenetic changes occur when a chemical group known as a methyl group attaches to a gene and modifies the way it is expressed. This happens as a body is influenced by a person's environment, lifestyle and disease.

When women smoked daily during pregnancy, researchers identified 6,073 places where their babies' DNA was methylated differently from the DNA of nonsmokers' infants. Many of the differences were found on or near a collection of genes related to lung and nervous system development, smoking-related cancers and birth defects such as cleft lip and palate.

3:20 video Researchers are clarifying epigenetic intricacies such as missing heritability, disease markers, methylated proteins, and imprinted genes. Learn about the history of epigenetics in this timeline spanning 130 years.

n this interrupted case study, students learn about the influence of early fetal nutritional conditions on the expression of genes related to metabolism and growth. Beginning with the true event of a food and fuel embargo that led to famine in the western Netherlands toward the end of World War II, students learn about the historical background of the Dutch Hunger Winter and its social impact. Using real data from the study conducted by Heijmans and coauthors (2008), students then compare the methylation level of a specific gene between individuals conceived during the famine and their unaffected siblings, and how changes in the expression of this metabolically important gene may impact the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Supported by other studies on mice and in humans, students conclude that in utero events may impact the health of individuals later in life through epigenetic mechanisms. The case is ideally suited for a molecular or cell biology course, but is also appropriate for an introductory biology course in which students have an understanding of descriptive statistics, interpretation of statistical test results, eukaryotic gene structure, and regulation of gene expression.

2:45 minute video 

2 page overview of epigenetics

A package of papers investigates the functional regulatory elements in genomes that have been obtained from human tissue samples and cell lines. The implications of the project are presented here from three viewpoints.