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Explaining inter-individual variability in phenotype: Is epigenetics up to the challenge?
Nahid Turan, Sunita Katari, Christos Coutifaris and Carmen Sapienza
Volume 5, Issue 1January 1, 2010
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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
- Nahid Turan
- Temple University School of Medicine
- Sunita Katari
- Temple University School of Medicine
- Christos Coutifaris
- University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
- Carmen Sapienza Corresponding author: sapienza@temple.edu
- Temple University School of Medicine; University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
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