PSY012
PSYCHOLOGY
“EPIGENETICS”
The field of epigenetics studies the changes and alterations in cells that can affect DNA
expression and are produced by environmental and external sources. The article I chose,
“Epigenetics: The Science of Change” [ CITATION Bob06 \l 1033 ] discusses some of the
epigenetics processes; for example, phosphorylation, methylation, sumolyation, ubiquitylation,
and acetylation as well as their effects and the diseases linked to them such as respiratory,
cardiovascular and neurobehavioral. For instance, human cancer was confirmed to be linked to
the process of DNA methylation in 1983 [ CITATION Bob06 \l 1033 ].
It has been proved that all these processes are crucial for some organism functions but if they
occur in an inappropriate way, they may be harmful in terms of behavior and health. The article
also provides several examples of studies that have been done in specific cases. For example, one
performed in pairs of twins ranging from three to seventy four years old; looking for changes
related to ages and lifestyles and finding that those two parameters have a strong influence in
epigenetics since the older twins showed to have different patterns in their tissues, muscles etc.
Now, in reference to the video, people, including me, do not think of the million details that
