[The meaning of epigenetics].
Epigenetics, the term was introduced by Conrad H.Waddington, in 1942,he said that to compare genetics with epigenetics, the study of the processes by which genotype gives rise to phenotype. In 1987, Robin Holliday redefined epigenetic as "Nuclear inheritance which is not based on differences in DNA sequence". The author of this paper introduced that in Science,10 August 2001,there was a special collection of review articles focused on the topic of epigenetics. The new "histone code" hypothesis states that the highly modifiable amino termini could carry their own combinatorial codes to help control phenotype,and that part of this code is heritable. And in light of this hypothesis,researchers are approaching further possibilities in human biology and types of cancer and other diseases.
The Tropical Biology Center, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan 570028, China. kaihu@public.hk.hi.cn
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