Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Introducing Epigenetics: A Graphic Guide
    Introducing Epigenetics: A Graphic Guide
    Introducing Epigenetics: A Graphic Guide
    Ebook242 pages1 hour

    Introducing Epigenetics: A Graphic Guide

    By Cath Ennis and Oliver Pugh

    3/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIcon Books
    Release dateFeb 2, 2017
    ISBN9781848319035
    Introducing Epigenetics: A Graphic Guide

    Related to Introducing Epigenetics

    Titles in the series (75)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Biology For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      What is DNA?

      Jun 10, 2021

      What is DNA?
      3 min read

    • Article

      What is DNA?

      Jan 4, 2023

      What is DNA?
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Rise of RNA Therapeutics

      Sep 29, 2021

      Most American newborns will arrive home from the hospital and start hitting their developmental milestones, to their parents’ delight. They will hold their heads up by about three months. They will sit up by six. And they will walk around their first

      8 min read

    • Article

      Meet the MUTANTS

      Aug 4, 2022

      Meet the MUTANTS
      7 min read

    • Article

      How Captain America “Broke The Rules”

      Jan 1, 2021

      How Captain America “Broke The Rules”
      1 min read

    • Article

      First Studies From Largest-ever Human Genome Database Released

      Jun 25, 2020

      I started my lab in Boston back in 2012. At that time, one of the first projects we launched was to begin sequencing DNA from patients affected by severe muscle diseases, like muscular dystrophy. What became clear was that we desperately needed bette

      3 min read

    • Article

      Method Demystifies the Center of Our Chromosomes

      Nov 21, 2017

      A new technique could give scientists access to the “final frontier” of our DNA—the centromere. It’s in nearly every one of our cells, at the center of every X-shaped chromosome, and it plays a crucial role in the everyday cell division that keeps us

      4 min read

    • Article

      Sex Is a Coping Mechanism: Did sexual reproduction evolve to keep up with mitochondrial mutation?

      Mar 24, 2016

      Ask any biologist—sex seems like a waste. It’s costly: Think of the enormous energy that goes into producing a peacock’s spectacular fan-shaped tail, apparently meant to entice a female to mate with him. And it seems inefficient: Sex allows us to pas

      9 min read

    • Article

      Sex Is Driven By The Impetus To Change

      Aug 12, 2020

      Ask any biologist—sex seems like a waste. It’s costly: Think of the enormous energy that goes into producing a peacock’s spectacular fan-shaped tail, apparently meant to entice a female to mate with him. And it seems inefficient: Sex allows us to pas

      9 min read

    • Article

      How Life Really Works

      Nov 6, 2023

      How Life Really Works
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Genome in Turmoil: Hope your week went well. It might have changed your genetics.

      Jun 6, 2013

      When President Obama delivered a speech at MIT in 2009, he used a common science metaphor: “We have always been about innovation,” he said. “We have always been about discovery. That’s in our DNA.” Deoxyribonucleic acid, the chemical into which our g

      6 min read

    • Article

      How Cells Remember Their Jobs During Division

      Aug 21, 2018

      Researchers have developed a technique that offers new insight into “cellular memory.” The cells in our body divide constantly throughout life. But how do cells remember whether to develop into a skin, liver, or intestinal cell? It’s a question that

      3 min read

    • Article

      Aging Is a Communication Breakdown

      Mar 21, 2019

      Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the 18th-century poet and philosopher, believed life was hardwired with archetypes, or models, which instructed its development. Yet he was fascinated with how life could, at the same time, be so malleable. One day, while

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Strange Inevitability of Evolution: Good solutions to biology’s problems are astonishingly plentiful.

      Oct 27, 2016

      Is the natural world creative? Just take a look around it. Look at the brilliant plumage of tropical birds, the diverse pattern and shape of leaves, the cunning stratagems of microbes, the dazzling profusion of climbing, crawling, flying, swimming th

      15 min read

    • Article

      The Secret, Stressful Stories of Fossils: A new field called paleoepigenetics is probing how evolution responds to sudden stress.

      Dec 3, 2015

      Every year the paleontologist Alan Cooper meets up with a band of miners in the Yukon. As the miners go about their work, spraying massive jets of water at frozen mud and silt to excavate gold, they also expose animal remains from the Pleistocene, b

      8 min read

    • Article

      New Method Identifies The Proteins That Unpack DNA

      Jul 13, 2018

      A new method makes it possible to systematically identify specialized proteins that unpack DNA inside the nucleus of a cell, making the usually dense DNA more accessible for gene expression and other functions. The method, and the shared characterist

      2 min read

    • Article

      It’s the End of the Gene As We Know It

      Jan 3, 2019

      We’ve all seen the stark headlines: “Being Rich and Successful Is in Your DNA” (Guardian, July 12); “A New Genetic Test Could Help Determine Children’s Success” (Newsweek, July 10); “Our Fortunetelling Genes” make us (Wall Street Journal, Nov. 16); a

      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Introducing Epigenetics

    3/5

    4 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Introducing Epigenetics - Cath Ennis

      Genes, RNA and Proteins

      Epigenetics is about how the genes* we inherit from our parents are controlled, and how they interact with our environment: how our genes make us, well, us.

      Epi- means upon, or in addition; epigenetics is the study of how additional factors interact with genes to direct the processes that make our cells* and bodies work.

      Scientists have known about some of these factors for decades, but have only quite recently begun putting everything together to start explaining some of the gaps in our knowledge of genetics. From how embryos develop to how species evolve, from basic laboratory research to drug development – epigenetics is becoming a hot topic of conversation!

      UNDERSTANDING EPIGENETICS – HOW OUR GENES INTERACT WITH OUR ENVIRONMENT AND OTHER FACTORS – IS CRUCIAL TO UNDERSTANDING MANY ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY.

      * Words marked with an asterisk are defined in the glossary.

      To understand epigenetics, we first need to know some basic genetics.

      Genes are made of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)*. DNA consists of long strings of four component molecules*, called bases*: A, C, G and T. The order, or sequence, of these bases along the string serves as our genetic code.

      Two long strings of DNA coil around each other to form the famous double helix structure. The bases on one strand form connections with the bases on the other strand; these connected pairs are the rungs in the twisted ladder-like structure of the helix. A always connects to T, and C always connects to G.

      CONNECTIONS BETWEEN MATCHING, OR COMPLEMENTARY, BASES ON OPPOSITE STRANDS OF DNA – A-T AND C-G – HOLD THE STRUCTURE OF THE DOUBLE HELIX TOGETHER.

      The first step in translating the DNA’s coded instructions is called transcription*. Part of the helix opens up, and the bases on one strand connect to new matching (complementary) base molecules. The new bases link together into a strand of ribonucleic acid (RNA)*. RNA is similar to DNA, but its short, single strands are less stable and more mobile than the DNA’s long double helix.

      Some types of RNA can squeeze out through tiny holes in the membrane that surrounds the cell nucleus*. DNA is too big to get through, so these RNA molecules act as coded messages from the genes to the rest of the cell.

      THE DNA'S CODE IS COPIED, OR TRANSCRIBED, INTO A STRAND OF RNA, WHICH PASSES THE MESSAGE ON TO THE REST OF THE CELL.

      Some of the RNAs that leave the nucleus are called messenger RNAs (mRNAs)*. mRNAs are copies of those sections of the DNA that code for large molecules called proteins*.

      Proteins are extremely important. There are thousands of different types, each with a specific function. Many proteins help to control the chemical reactions that keep our cells alive and healthy. For example, proteins are needed to open up the DNA double helix and to join individual bases together into RNA strands during transcription. Other proteins are involved in digesting food, fighting infections, carrying oxygen around the body, and thousands of other diverse functions.

      HEY, PANCREAS CELL, MY BOSS GENE NEEDS YOU TO MAKE SOME MORE INSULIN!

      The process of converting mRNA sequences into proteins is called translation*.

      Each three-base unit – called a "codon"* – of mRNA connects to a transfer RNA (tRNA)* strand that has three complementary bases at one end. The other end is attached to a molecule called an amino acid*. There are different types of amino acid, and each type can only attach to tRNAs that match specific codons.

      Just as bases are the building blocks of DNA and RNA, amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. As tRNAs connect to their matching codons along an mRNA strand, their amino acids join up in the same order.

      CCC, MEET PROLINE. PROLINE, THIS IS CCC.

      The sequence of amino acids in each protein is specified by the sequence of codons in the corresponding mRNA, which in turn matches the sequence of bases in the DNA. The very specific relationship between a given mRNA codon and its matching tRNA molecule, which is only ever attached to a single type of amino acid, is essential to the conversion of the DNA’s code into proteins.

      The sequence of amino acids in a protein determines its function. As we saw before, protein functions are essential for life. This is why DNA is so important – it contains all the instructions needed to make our cells and bodies work.

      I FIGHT INFECTIONS! I MAKE MRNAS! I CONTROL IT ALL!

      Chromosomes, Nucleosomes and Chromatin

      Our complete DNA sequence is called our genome*. All humans have extremely similar genomes, although we each have a slightly different version of the sequence. Almost every cell in your body contains its own copy of your unique version of the human genome.

      The human genome is divided into 23 sections called chromosomes*. Chromosomes come in pairs: we each inherit one chromosome of each pair from our mother, and the other from our father. The longest human chromosome contains about 2,600 protein-coding genes; the smallest, just 140. Genes are separated by stretches of non-protein-coding DNA.

      THERE ARE TWO STRANDS OF DNA PER DOUBLE HELIX, AND ONE DOUBLE HELIX PER CHROMOSOME. THERE ARE 23 CHROMOSOMES FROM EACH PARENT, SO 46 CHROMOSOMES PER CELL. WHICH MEANS 92 STRANDS OF DNA PER CELL!

      There are about 21,000 protein-coding genes in the human genome, which contains 3 billion individual bases (A, C, G and T). Laid out end-to-end, the DNA contained in a single cell would be about 1.8 metres (five feet) long. The DNA has to be twisted, folded and compacted to fit into a tiny cell nucleus.

      The double helix first wraps around a cluster of eight small proteins called histones*, which bind very tightly to DNA. Each individual unit of eight histone proteins plus DNA is called a nucleosome*. The nucleosomes that assemble along a stretch of DNA look like beads on a string.

      EACH NUCLEOSOME BEAD CONSISTS OF 8 HISTONE PROTEINS – 2 EACH OF 4 DIFFERENT TYPES OF HISTONE – AND 146 BASES OF DNA.

      Four types of histone protein make up the nucleosome beads. A fifth type of histone protein attaches to the linker DNA between nucleosomes, and also to the histones inside each adjacent nucleosome. These connections compact the beads on a string into a thicker strand. Additional proteins, called scaffolds, bind to this strand and loop, fold and bend it into even denser structures.

      The combination of DNA, histones and scaffold proteins, plus other proteins and RNAs that bind to the overall structure, is called chromatin*.

      The density of the chromatin varies along the length of each chromosome. You can actually see this variation in photographs of dyed cells – chromosomes are stripy, with the darker bands corresponding to regions of denser chromatin.

      HISTONES AND OTHER PROTEINS HELP TO COMPACT THE DNA INTO INCREASINGLY DENSE STRUCTURES.

      DNA Replication and Mitosis

      New cells are constantly being created in our bodies, via a process called cell division*.

      Before a

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1