Epigenetics for dummies

For those who are interested in the epigenetic changes theory (http://www.propeciahelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3901) but have a a hard time understanding its practical meaning, here is a very nice and very short example about epigenetic changes in bees: http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/12/bee_biology. The complete study is referenced in the article.

The study shows that all bees share the same DNA, but being queen or worker depends on what genes get methylated. In this case, the methylation process is driven by diet (by eating royal jelly). One amazing thing to notice and which I didn’t know is that it is possible to see exactly which genes are methylated, and therefore what proteins are responsible for different physical characteristics and behavior between queen and workers.

In our case, assuming that the difference between us and normal people is that some of our genes got methylated, it seems possible to establish exactly where the methylation happened. Unfortunately, this piece of information would be useless right now because we don’t have a technique to demethylate genes selectively.

I often wonder what we all have in common. Why some men experienced no persistant side effects, and some do. I always thought that if we could figure out a commonality (blood type, birth order, ethnicity, etc), we would be closer to figuring out a cure. Maybe I’m just being too simplictic, but I wonder if a survey of users would help us to find that commonality.

Happy and healthy Christmas everyone. Hope 2011 is our greatest year ever!