Henikoff Steven, Greally John M
Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Basic Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98109, USA.
Department of Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA and Department of Genetics, Center for Epigenomics and Division of Computational Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1301 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461, USA.
Curr Biol. 2016 Jul 25;26(14):R644-8. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.06.011.
The field described as 'epigenetics' has captured the imagination of scientists and the lay public. Advances in our understanding of chromatin and gene regulatory mechanisms have had impact on drug development, fueling excitement in the lay public about the prospects of applying this knowledge to address health issues. However, when describing these scientific advances as 'epigenetic', we encounter the problem that this term means different things to different people, starting within the scientific community and amplified in the popular press. To help researchers understand some of the misconceptions in the field and to communicate the science accurately to each other and the lay audience, here we review the basis for many of the assumptions made about what are currently referred to as epigenetic processes.
被称为“表观遗传学”的领域激发了科学家和普通大众的想象力。我们对染色质和基因调控机制理解的进展对药物开发产生了影响，这也让普通大众对应用这些知识解决健康问题的前景感到兴奋。然而，当我们将这些科学进展描述为“表观遗传学”时，我们遇到了一个问题，即这个术语对不同的人有不同的含义，从科学界内部开始，在大众媒体中被进一步放大。为了帮助研究人员理解该领域的一些误解，并准确地在彼此之间以及向普通受众传达科学知识，在此我们回顾许多关于当前所谓表观遗传过程的假设的依据。
