Mammalian Developmental Epigenetics Group, Institut Curie, CNRS UMR 3215, INSERM U934, 26 rue d'Ulm, 75248 Paris Cedex 05, France; Collège de France, 11 place Marcelin-Berthelot, Paris 75005, France.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA; Chaire Blaise Pascal, IBENS, École Normale Supérieure, Paris 75230, France.
Cell. 2014 Mar 27;157(1):95-109. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2014.02.045.
Since the human genome was sequenced, the term "epigenetics" is increasingly being associated with the hope that we are more than just the sum of our genes. Might what we eat, the air we breathe, or even the emotions we feel influence not only our genes but those of descendants? The environment can certainly influence gene expression and can lead to disease, but transgenerational consequences are another matter. Although the inheritance of epigenetic characters can certainly occur-particularly in plants-how much is due to the environment and the extent to which it happens in humans remain unclear.
自从人类基因组测序以来，“表观遗传学”一词越来越多地与我们不仅仅是基因总和的希望联系在一起。我们所吃的食物、呼吸的空气，甚至我们的感受是否会影响不仅是我们自己的基因，还有后代的基因？环境当然会影响基因表达，从而导致疾病，但跨代的影响则是另一回事。尽管表观遗传特征的遗传肯定会发生——特别是在植物中——但有多少是由于环境引起的，以及它在人类中发生的程度仍然不清楚。
