Overview
Is the first undergraduate textbook on epigenetics with a clear focus on humans
Links the "hot topic" epigenetics to numerous disciplines, such as embryogenesis, nutrition and neuroscience
Describes the impact of epigenetics in health and disease
Has a high ratio figures to text
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Table of contents (12 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
The view “It’s all in our genes and we cannot change it” developed in the past 150 years since Gregor Mendel’s experiments with flowering pea plants. However, there is a special form of genetics, referred to as epigenetics, which does not involve any change of our genes but regulates how and when they are used. In the cell nucleus our genes are packed into chromatin, which is a complex of histone proteins and genomic DNA, representing the molecular basis of epigenetics. Our environment and lifestyle decisions influence the epigenetics of our cells and organs, i.e. epigenetics changes dynamically throughout our whole life. Thus, we have the chance to change our epigenetics in a positive as well as negative way and present the onset of diseases, such a type 2 diabetes or cancer.
This textbook provides a molecular explanation how our genome is connected with environmental signals. It outlines that epigenetic programming is a learning process that results in epigenetic memory in each of the cells of our body. The central importance of epigenetics during embryogenesis and cellular differentiation as well as in the process of aging and the risk for the development of cancer are discussed. Moreover, the role of the epigenome as a molecular storage of cellular events not only in the brain but also in metabolic organs and in the immune system is described.
The book represents an updated but simplified version of our textbook “Human Epigenomics” (ISBN 978-981-10-7614-8). The first five chapters explain the molecular basis of epigenetics, while the following seven chapters provide examples for the impact of epigenetics in human health and disease.
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Ferdinand Molnár received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Kuopio (Kuopio, Finland) in 2006. He did his postdoctoral training in Structural Biology at the IGBMC (Illkirch, France). In 2008 he joined the School of Pharmacy at the University of Eastern Finland (Kuopio, Finland) studying nuclear receptor− ligand, −protein, and −DNA interactions. In 2018 he moved to the Nazarbayev University (Astana, Kazakhstan) where he holds an Associate Professor position at the Department of Biology. Prof. Molnár’s interests are integrative structural biology and bioinformatics, eukaryotic transcriptional regulation in health and disease, and recombinant protein production.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Human Epigenetics: How Science Works
Authors: Carsten Carlberg, Ferdinand Molnár
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22907-8
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life Sciences, Biomedical and Life Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-22906-1Published: 05 October 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-22907-8Published: 24 September 2019
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVI, 153
Number of Illustrations: 69 illustrations in colour
Topics: Gene Expression, Molecular Medicine, Nutrition, Cancer Research, Immunology