Abstract
Epigenetic mechanisms regulate gene function in a heritable manner, but do so without modulating the DNA sequence of the affected gene. Many different genetic functions are influenced by epigenetic mechanisms in various species. These include regulation of gene expression, DNA modification and restriction, genomic imprinting, X-chromosome inactivation, paramutation, position effect variegation, mating type, cell determination, transposable elements, and mutator and suppressor genes. This chapter will focus on epigenetic mechanisms that regulate gene expression and the manner in which they accomplish this in mammalian species.
“ The study of mitotically and/or meiotically heritable changes in gene function that cannot be explained by changes in primary DNA sequence.”
A. D. Riggs, 1996
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Introduction
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McCarrey, J.R. (2003). Epigenetic Mechanisms Regulating Gene Expression. In: Krawetz, S.A., Womble, D.D. (eds) Introduction to Bioinformatics. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-335-4_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-335-4_6
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