Environmental Epigenomics in Health and Disease: Epigenetics and Disease Origins

✍ Scribed by Randy L. Jirtle (auth.), Randy L Jirtle, Frederick L. Tyson (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
• Year: 2013
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 308
• Series: Epigenetics and Human Health
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

There are now compelling human epidemiological and animal experimental data that indicate the risk of developing adult-onset complex diseases and neurological disorders are influenced by persistent epigenetic adaptations in response to prenatal and early postnatal exposures to environmental factors. Epigenetics refers to heritable changes in gene function that occur without a change in the sequence of the DNA. The main components of the epigenetic code are DNA methylation, histone modifications, and non-coding RNAs. The epigenetic programs are established as stem cell differentiate during embryogenesis, and they are normally faithfully reproduced during mitosis. Moreover, they can also be maintained during meiosis, resulting in epigenetic transgenerational disease inheritance, and also potentially introducing phenotypic variation that is selected for in the evolution of new species. The objective of this book is to provide evidence that environmental exposures during early development can alter the risk of developing medical conditions, such as asthma, autism, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and schizophrenia later in life by modifying the epigenome.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xv
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Epigenetics: How Genes and Environment Interact....Pages 3-30
Developmental Epigenomics and Metabolic Disease....Pages 31-50
Sculpting Our Future: Environmental Nudging of the Imprintome....Pages 51-73
Front Matter....Pages 75-75
Complex Phenotypes: Epigenetic Manifestation of Environmental Exposures....Pages 77-97
Epigenetic Effects of Ionizing Radiation....Pages 99-126
The Intersection of Genetics and Epigenetics: Reactivation of Mammalian LINE-1 Retrotransposons by Environmental Injury....Pages 127-160
Front Matter....Pages 161-161
Environmental Impact on Epigenetic Histone Language....Pages 163-187
Chromatin Structure and Gene Expression: Function Follows Form....Pages 189-205
Epigenetics of Pluripotency....Pages 207-223
Front Matter....Pages 225-225
Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance in Drosophila....Pages 227-244
Environmental Epigenetics and Epigenetic Transgenerational Inheritance....Pages 245-256
The Nature of Human Transgenerational Responses....Pages 257-271
Back Matter....Pages 273-302

✦ Subjects

Human Genetics; Cancer Research; Gene Function