Epigenetic Factors and Chromosome Organization

The term epigenetics was introduced by C. H. Waddington in 1956 to describe all the interactions between genes and their environment that lead to phenotypic expression. Today it is used to define heritable modifications in gene expression that are not based on changes in nucleotide sequence. In mammalian chromosomes, the commonly reported epigenetic markers are cytosine methylation, histone methylation, histone acetylation, histone methylation and noncoding ribonucleic acid and chromosome association. Keywords: epigenetics; methylation; acetylation; chromosome; ICF syndrome