Epigenetics 2.0: the multiple faces of the genome

Abstract

Epigenetics is the branch of genetics that studies the dynamic relationship between stable genotypes and varying phenotypes. To this end, epigenetics aims to discover the molecular mechanisms that explain how different nutrients and hormones, environmental changes, and emotional, social and cognitive experiences modify gene expression and behaviors, even permanently so. Psychiatry has learned that diseases with strong genetic predisposition, such as schizophrenia, show a concordance of around 50% between monozygotic twins, thus evidencing the importance of the genetic background and the presence of environmental variables that stimulate or block phenotypic development. The interest in epigenetics has increased during the last few years due to fundamental discoveries made in molecular and behavioral genetics, although within this framework factual knowledge coexists with fictional expectations and wrong concepts. Is it possible that epigenetic variants modify temperament and human behavior? May abused or neglected children develop long-lasting epigenetic marks in their DNA? May bipolar states correlate with different epigenetic signatures? Studying these subjects in not an easy task, but experiments performed in lab animals suggest that these conjectures are reasonable, although there is still a long distance between hypotheses and scientifically proven facts.