In “Trauma Permanently Affecting DNA?,” I found it so intriguing that trauma, regardless of it being short-lived or continual, can permanently alter your DNA. Epigenetic gene expression is different from other kinds of inheritance due to it being solely a change in the phenotype of the gene, not the genotype. So, the underlying gene sequence is not affected; molecules will sit on the DNA and change the way in which RNA is made from DNA. This, in turn, changes the way proteins are made, leading to change in mood, behavior, and stress responses. A common example of an epigenetic change is methylation, which is the addition of a methyl group onto DNA. Other forms of inheritance directly alter the DNA gene sequence, in contrast with epigenetics.
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