10th annual fall conference lynn ironside orohc board vice-chair
TRANSCRIPT
10th Annual Fall Conference
Lynn IronsideOrOHC Board Vice-Chair
EPIGENETICS 101: WHY GRANDMOTHERS
ARE IMPORTANT
Darwin and Freud walk into a bar. Two alcoholic mice—a mother and her son—sit on two bar stools, lapping gin from two thimbles.
The mother mouse looks up and says, “Hey, geniuses, tell me how my son got into this sorry state.”
“Bad inheritance,” says Darwin.
“Bad mothering,” says Freud.
The “Hongerwinter”
The Great Chinese Famine
Genetics 101
Phenotype = measurable characteristic or trait
• Genotype = genetic constitution of an individual
• Gene = a section of DNA that determines or influences the phenotype
Alleles = alternate forms of a gene
hhHh
HH
How did different alleles come into existence?
MUTATIONS“The capacity to blunder slightly is the real marvel of DNA. Without this special attribute, we would still be anaerobic bacteria and there would be no music.”
Lewis Thomas
The Lives of a Cell
“What’s a liger?”“It’s pretty much my favorite animal.”
LigerFather = lionMother = tiger
TigonFather = tigerMother = lion
+ Folic acidVitamin B12CholineBetaine
+ BPA
Humans have a GR gene, too
Schizophrenia
REELIN
GLUTAMATE DECARBOXYLASE
Timing is everything
Exercise for as little as 20 minutes can create epigenetic changes within 3 hours
….Particularly in genes involved in muscle cell metabolism and glucose regulation
Alas, the effects are transient, lasting only a few hours
More info on epigenetics…
• The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology Is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease, and Inheritance by Nessa Carey (2012)
• http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/• http://www.dnalc.org/• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/education/
body/epigenetics.html• http://www.the-scientist.com/