Big Question: Can your environment change your DNA?

Perhaps the only thing we remember from the biology of the eighth grade is that the DNA does not change. The three billion letters that make up your personal genome live with you and are the major blueprint for your parents. However, not everything about how genes work is not programmed at birth. Associate Professor of Medical Genetics, Simon Gregory, Associate Professor of epidemiology and epigenomics of Duke explains:

The DNA sequence may not be affected by your environment, but gene working - gene expression - is possible. Considering DNA as computer hardware, there are several types of software programs that can adjust hardware functions. Epigenetic study of genetic alteration of gene expression, which does not involve software changes that effectively change basic DNA, leading to changes in gene function

Environmental factors such as exposure to food, drugs, toxins can cause epigenetic changes by changing the way the molecule binds to DNA or by changing the protein structure of the DNA. These structural changes can result in slight changes in gene activity; they can also lead to larger changes by switching genes when they should be turned off, and vice versa .

These changes are hereditary, meaning that they are inherited from the parent cell to the daughter's cells in the body, from the parent to the child. For example, an abnormal study of survivors of famine in the Netherlands during the Second World War suggests that the impact of epigenetic changes caused by starvation is not a survivor's child, but that children's children I showed it. This may indicate that this adage is not merely "you are what you eat" but rather that you should not be what your grandparents ate Hmm.

In your cell, do this through epigenetic changes - small changes in your DNA are possible depending on your diet, lifestyle and environment. The most common of these involves the addition of a protein called methyl group (called methylation) or DNA to DNA called histone. Just like your DNA sequence, you can tell it from generation to generation. However, unlike genetic code, epigenetic changes are reversible. It can happen in the womb (sometimes diabetes and obesity can be caused by mother's diet) and can be done everyday in everyday life. Change them

Who are you as well as your DNA? Your environment also plays an important role. Depending on lifestyle factors such as stress and diet, the way to switch genes changes, which may change the way the genes are expressed. It is well known that how these changes seem to be handed down to future generations is a confusing scientist. Now, the new research has provided insight on what is going on at last. Early cells scheduled to become eggs and sperm disappear by these changes in the early stage of embryonic development, but scientists respond to so-called initialization of some DNA fragments, and the modifications will persist and become inherited . . Importantly, researchers have discovered that several resistance genes are associated with certain diseases, including obesity and schizophrenia. These interesting findings were published in Cell magazine.