page_title: Behavioral epigenetics
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Behavioral epigenetics / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Epigenetic mechanisms are affected by several factors and processes including development in utero and in childhood, environmental chemicals, drugs and pharmaceuticals, aging, and diet. DNA methylation is what occurs when methyl groups, an epigenetic factor found in some dietary sources, can tag DNA and activate or repress genes. Histones are proteins around which DNA can wind for compaction and gene regulation. Histone modification occurs when the binding of epigenetic factors to histone “tails” alters the extent to which DNA is wrapped around histones and the availability of genes in the DNA to be activated. All of these factors and processes can have an effect on people’s health and influence their health possibly resulting in cancer, autoimmune disease, mental disorders, or diabetes among other illnesses. National Institutes of Health
context_page_description: Behavioral epigenetics is the field of study examining the role of epigenetics in shaping animal behaviour. It seeks to explain how nurture shapes nature, where nature refers to biological heredity and nurture refers to virtually everything that occurs during the life-span. Behavioral epigenetics attempts to provide a framework for understanding how the expression of genes is influenced by experiences and the environment to produce individual differences in behaviour, cognition, personality, and mental health.
  Epigenetic gene regulation involves changes other than to the sequence of DNA and includes changes to histones and DNA methylation. These epigenetic changes can influence the growth of neurons in the developing brain as well as modify the activity of neurons in the adult brain. Together, these epigenetic changes in neuron structure and function can have a marked influence on an organism's behavior.
context_section_description: In biology, and specifically genetics, epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene activity which are not caused by changes in the DNA sequence; the term can also be used to describe the study of stable, long-term alterations in the transcriptional potential of a cell that are not necessarily heritable.
  Examples of mechanisms that produce such changes are DNA methylation and histone modification, each of which alters how genes are expressed without altering the underlying DNA sequence. Gene expression can be controlled through the action of repressor proteins that attach to silencer regions of the DNA. 
  DNA methylation turns a gene "off" – it results in the inability of genetic information to be read from DNA; removing the methyl tag can turn the gene back "on".
  Epigenetics has a strong influence on the development of an organism and can alter the expression of individual traits.  Epigenetic changes occur not only in the developing fetus, but also in individuals throughout the human life-span.   Because some epigenetic modifications can be passed from one generation to the next, subsequent generations may be affected by the epigenetic changes that took place in the parents.
caption: Modifications of the epigenome do not alter DNA.
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