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Scientists identified the genes of the human genome to understand how the genes influences the function and physical characteristics of human beings.

The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an amazing endeavor to map the full human genome, and so intense an effort that it required an international collaborative research team. One of the ultimate goals of this project was to shed light on human diseases and find the underlying genes causing these health issues. However, the HGP ended up creating more questions than answering them. One thing we found out is that most diseases are complex diseases, meaning that more than one gene causes the disease. Obesity is one such example of a complex disease. This is in contrast to cystic fibrosis which is a disease caused by a mutation in a single gene. To further complicate diseases, there are gene and environment interactions to consider. A gene-environment interaction is a situation in which environmental factors affect individuals differently, depending on their genotype or genetic information. The possible number of gene-environment interactions involved in complex diseases is daunting, but the HGP has given us the information necessary to start better understanding these interaction.

Although the HGP did not end up giving us the answers we were looking for, it pointed us in the direction we needed to take. We needed to consider the role of environmental factors on human health and disease. For not only are complex diseases not fully explained by genetics alone, but another aspect of these diseases remains unexplained by genetics: the health disparities seen within diseases like obesity, diabetes, cancer, etc. The HGP showed us that not all diseases are caused by single mutations and that genetic diversity does not explain the differences in health outcomes. The environment plays a big part.

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Epigenome  is the software that controls gene expression to make the different cells that make up the human body.

Gene-environment interactions begin to answer why genetics alone cannot explain  varying health outcomes by considering that the environment may have varying effects on our genetic data. However, there is another dimension to our genetic background that could better answer why genes often can’t be mapped directly to a disease. Imagine that our genome is our computer hardware, with all the information necessary to create the cells we are composed of. However, something needs to configure the genome to differentially express genes so as to make skin and heart cells from the same DNA. Skin and heart cells have the same information (DNA) in their nucleus but only express what’s necessary to function as a skin or heart cell. In other words, software is needed for the hardware. For us, that software is the epigenome. The epigenome consists of a collection of chemical compounds, or marks, that tell the genome what to do; how to make skin and heart cells from the same information. The epigenome, unlike the genome, is flexible. It can change at key points in development and even during the course of one’s lifetime. This flexibility makes the epigenome susceptible to environmental factors and could explain: (1) Why our genome alone cannot explain the incidences of diseases such as obesity, (2) the health disparities within these complex diseases, and (3) the transgenerational inheritance of complex diseases like metabolic syndrome, defined as a cluster of conditions such as high blood pressure and high blood sugar that increase your risk for heart disease and diabetes.

Now of course, the more we find out the more questions are left unanswered. As stated before, the epigenome can change due to lifestyle and environmental factors which can prompt chemical responses. However, the mechanisms by which things like diet and smoking induce these chemical responses is unclear. But researchers have started to fill in the gap. For example, certain types of fats, like polyunsaturated fatty acids (corn oil is high in these), can generate highly reactive molecules and oxidative stress, which can cause epigenetic alterations. Tobacco smoke contains a mixture of chemicals that have been independently investigated with mixed results on the epigenetic effects. Psychological stress, more specifically child abuse, has been seen to cause increased methylation (a sort of mark on the genome) of a receptor for hormones responsible for metabolism (glucocorticoid receptor) in suicide victims. This has also been seen in mouse models where higher maternal care of pups decreased methylation of the glucocorticoid receptor. Increased methylation usually decreases the expression of the glucocorticoid receptor, and decreased methylation would increase the glucocorticoid receptor’s expression.

The HGP was an amazing endeavor of science and has given us amazing insight into the structure, organization, and function of the complete set of human genes. It has also helped point us in a new direction to better understand chronic diseases and seek to find the solutions to address the burden of disease.

Peer edited by Mejs Hasan and Emma Hinkle.

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One Reply to “Epigenetics: The Software of the DNA Hardware”

  1. An associate of mine shared your article with me this afternoon. This is a topic he has discussed with me many times.
    Thank you for writing such a great introduction into the issue of epigenetics.

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