Epigenetics

Today in class we will be watching a video on epigenetics.

You will be answering the following questions:

NOVA: Epigenetics Video Questions

1. Are identical twins totally identical?
2. Identical twins have the same _________ and exact same __________.
3. Are genes the whole story?
4. Is it possible for a twin to have a disease that the other one never has?
5. Twins come from the same egg. So they have exactly the same genes. They are literally ____________.
6. Do the mice in the study have the same genes?
7. But, do they look the same?
8. These identical mice both have a particular gene, called agouti, but in the yellow mouse it ____________________, causing obesity.
9. So what accounts for the thin mouse? Exercise? Atkins? No, a tiny chemical tag of carbon and hydrogen, called a methyl group, has affixed to the agouti gene, ______________________.
10. What does epigenetics literally translates to meaning?
11. If the ______ is the hardware of the computer, the epigenome is the ______ that tells the computer when to work, how to work, and how much.
12. Can an epigenome be altered?


Discussion:
1. Why did the researchers have to use twins for the study in Madrid?
2. What is the difference between the genome and the epigenome?
3. What is gene regulation?
4. Define cell differentiation.
5. If all cells have the same genes, how do they become differentiated?