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Epigenetics
Go to http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/
Define Epigenetics 
Go to the ‘Lick your Rats’ interactive activity. Work through the tutorial, and read the information
at the bottom of the web page when you are finished. Answer the following questions:
1. Explain how this is an example of epigenetics.
2. Is an anxious mouse or a more relaxed mouse more likely to survive? Explain.
3. What are advantages to traits passed through the epigenetic genome? Disadvantages?
Watch ‘Insights from Identical Twins’ and answer the following:
1. What is an epigenetic tag?
2. What are imprinted genes?
3. What are some environmental factors that can impact the epigenome?
4. Summarize the main point of the video – If two twins have identical genomes, what
makes them so different from one another?
Go to the ‘Gene Control’ link. Turn the labels on (sound is not necessary). Make a mental note
of the number of proteins being transcribed as the number of epigenetic tags (methyl groups)
are being manipulated. Read the section on Epigenetics and Cancer. Keep in mind that low
methylation means more DNA is active and high methylation means less DNA is active.
Answer the following:
1. What are two different ways that changes in the epigenome can lead to cancer?
2. List the consequences of each of these (from above) that lead to cancer.
Read ‘Epigenetics and Inheritance’. Answer the following:
1. Explain what is meant by ‘reprogramming’ (and why is this process important?)
2. Summarize the challenges researchers face in trying to prove epigenetic inheritance.
3. Summarize some possible implications of epigenetic inheritance on evolution.
Read “Nutrition and the Epigenome” discuss the role of the mother’s diet with regads to the
agouti gene as well as discuss how epigenetics is involved with determining the “Queen Bee”
Read ‘The Epigenome Learns from its Experiences’. You are not required to answer specific
questions from this section, but there is a lot of good information in here and it may help answer
some questions you may have on this topic.