IDENTICAL TWINS: PINPOINTING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ON THE EPIGENOME

1. At birth, the identical twins' environment is the same, causing their expressed genes to be the same in turn. As they progress into adulthood, however, their experiences and environments will differ, causing changes in the twins' respective genomes. Eventually the expressed genes will cause the two twins to look different from one another.

2. Nutrition, exercise, and exposure to toxins all affect the epigenome of the twins.

3. An imprinted gene is defines as: "a gene whose expression has been affected by genomic imprinting so that only a single allele functions, the other being turned off by epigenetic mechanisms during embryonic development." This would apply to any gene affected by epigenomics.

YOUR ENVIRONMENT, YOUR EPIGENOME

1. No one in my family smokes, so I am exposed to relatively low levels of toxicity. I eat healthier and get more exercise than I used to, which may be why I've gotten thinner over the past few years.

LICK YOUR RATS

1. A high nurturing rat mother will excessively groom her cub. The more grooming a rat receives, the greater the amounts of GR proteins active in its brain. This will allow it to receive a calming chemical called cortisol easier than rats without GR.

2. Licking the baby rats activates its GR chemical.

3. GR proteins in the hippocampus attract the stress-relieving hormone cortisol. Because of this, rats that were licked as infants and had more GR proteins became calm quicker than those who were neglected.

4. In humans, children that are neglected are more likely to get into crime and drugs. Our parents are our premiere role models, so their actions and reactions to us profoundly impact how we turn out.

NUTRITION & THE EPIGENOME

1. The nutrients in the foods we eat create methyl groups (epigenetic tags that are responsible for gene expression). Some of these nutrients are folic acid, B vitamins, and SAM-e.

2. A mother's nutrition during pregnancy as well as the offspring's food as an infant can profoundly impact the child into adulthood. Genes such as obesity can be expressed if the mother does not have adequately healthy food.

EPIGENETICS & THE HUMAN BRAIN

1. In suicide cases, the levels of methyl are higher, resulting in less mRNA and ribosomes, and therefore less replication to take place.

2. Drugs can affect methylation by triggering epigenetic change in the brain. Some diseases can be reversed through these changes.