title: Explaining inter-individual variability in phenotype: is epigenetics up to the challenge?
abstract: The hypothesis that environmental factors alter somatically heritable epigenetic marks and change long-term patterns of gene expression is an exciting possibility in human disease research. Because most common diseases, and many quantitative traits, are influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, environmentally induced changes in epigenetic structures can provide a mechanistic link between genes and environment. We believe that inter-individual differences in the epigenetic modification of genes will explain a much greater fraction of inter-individual phenotypic variation than differences in genotype, alone.
authors.affiliation: Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Nahid
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Turan
authors.forename: Sunita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Katari
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Coutifaris
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sapienza
mesh_terms: D018899:CpG Islands; D019175:DNA Methylation; D004777:Environment; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D014644:Genetic Variation; D015894:Genome, Human; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010641:Phenotype; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger