Book review – Life Sculpted: Tales of the Animals, Plants, and Fungi That Drill, Break, and Scrape to Shape theEarth September 13, 2023 On the other hand, the ability to study both genomes and epigenomes together at unprecedented resolution has been inviting a different discourse where the former regains primacy in shaping the latter, from the emphasis on genetic mutations in epigenetic regulators that underlie an increasing number of diseases ( Ronan et al, 2013) to the notion that somatic genetic mosaicism is not only widespread during development and aging but that it can itself affect “the epigenetic patterns and levels of gene expression, and ultimately the phenotypes of cells” ( De, 2011). Clearly, depending on how far the pendulum swings toward the poles of these two discourses, one encounters a range of epistemic nuances, from the mutually exclusive attempts to replace the genome with the epigenome (or indeed vice versa) as explanatory resources, to the mutually reinforcing attempts to probe them in the increasingly visible circularity of their interconnections. Carey] provides an excellent and largely accurate account of a fascinating and fast-moving area of modern biology. Jonathan Hodgkin, Times Literary Supplement Importantly, here postgenomic and postgenomics are meant not only chronologically (that is, what has happened after/ post the deciphering of the Human Genome in 2003) but also epistemologically, as the recognition of those gaps in knowledge and unforeseen complexities surrounding the gene ( Maher, 2008) that have made our understanding of its function cautiously provisional and perennially contingent.

The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology Is Rewriting The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology Is Rewriting

In this respect, and unsurprisingly, twin studies are proving to be an especially informative domain in which to flesh out the mutual reconfigurations of these two discourses. A source of permanent wonder throughout human history, twins have come to be a unique challenge and an equally unique opportunity once some of them ‘became' monozygotic, that is, once embryology and genetics led us to trace their identity to the sameness of cellular and genetic constituents, thus setting them apart from their ‘lesser' siblings that happened to share only a womb at a given time (that is, the same context of epigenetic triggers, in today's language, see Nowotny and Testa, 2011). The genetic identity of monozygotic twins, cast against the range of their phenotypic diversity, has thus become the most visible manifestation of the genome's insufficiency as sole or even main determinant/predictor for several human traits, offering for this very reason a unique entry point into the dissection of non-genetic contributions. In its proposed role of critical intermediate between genotype and phenotype or genotype and environment (along the many shifts we have encountered above), epigenetics has thus acquired increasing prominence in twin studies, as witnessed by what is arguably its most visionary and cogent pursuit, namely the Peri/Postnatal Epigenetics Twin Study with its systematic and prospective scrutiny of individual epigenetic variation in twin cohorts starting from birth ( Loke, 2013), that in turn builds on the first systematic scrutiny of the epigenetic changes that accrue over the lifetime of monozygotic twins ( Fraga, 2005). E. H.: Epigenetics refers to any change to gene expression that does not involve a modification of the DNA sequence, which is stable but remains reversible. We now know that cells acquire and keep their identity thanks to epigenetic marks: chemical differences in the DNA that never alter its sequence but make it possible to read certain genes and not others. So epigenetics is a sort of cell memory that is transmissible to future generations of cells. However, it is one that can be deleted, hence the term reversibility. Geddes, Linda (4 February 2015). "An encyclopaedic guide to the dark genome". New Scientist . Retrieved 26 January 2017.

Epigenetics is what happens when genes are actually in action: in the growth of the foetus, in responding to hormones and environmental stress, to learning, to maturation at puberty. In all of these processes genes are modified slightly and act differently from that point on. In short, epigenetics is where nature meets nurture. The grounds for excitement stem from the fact that this old and frequently sterile dichotomy is now being fleshed out with real knowledge of how genes are controlled and how they respond to life situations. Carey's report on the rapidly developing state of epigenetics research may help nonscientists with public-policy, investment, and health-care decisions. Booklist

The Epigenetics Revolution Frontiers | Book review: The Epigenetics Revolution

January 2013 • 4 minutes read Event Review: Masterpieces of Epigenetics - The Missing Link between Nature and Nurture

Conflict of Interest Statement

a b c d Carey, Nessa (22 January 2017). Junk DNA: A Journey Through the Dark Matter of the Genome. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231539418. Moran, Laurence A. (10 February 2015). "Sandwalk: Nessa Carey and New Scientist don't understand the junk DNA debate". Sandwalk . Retrieved 28 January 2017. Since 2017 you have been co-director of the Pause programme managed by the Collège de France, where you have been a professor since 2012. This project, initiated by the previous government, consists in giving a better welcome to foreign scientists living in exile. What are the reasons for this commitment? Maurizio Meloni (Institute for Science and Society, SSSP, University of Nottingham) is a social theorist working on the history and political implications of the life sciences, neuroscience and epigenetics in particular. He has published in journals such as The Sociological Review, Sociology, Economy and Society, Subjectivity, Telos, History of the Human Sciences, New Genetics and Society, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, in the edited volume Neurocultures (2011) and in a recent collection on neuroscience and political theory (Routledge, 2012). He is currently preparing a book on biology and social theory in a postgenomic age (Palgrave Macmillan). From September 2014 he will be a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. Bioscience for Industry Strategy Advisory Panel – BBSRC". Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council . Retrieved 22 January 2017.