The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance

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It is a challenging, but really interesting read, and perhaps, as it did for me, it will change the way you think about biology! The first chapter, by Schurmans takes a molecular perspective on epigenetics and deals with the role of chromatin modification in neural development. Nessa Carey has a gift for the expression of complicated scientific concepts in clear and simple terms and brings to life the personalities responsible for key advances. Nessa Carey has a PhD in virology from the University of Edinburgh and has had successful careers in both the university and commercial settings. Another positive element in the book is that on several instances there is a pictorial illustration of the issue raised by the author so that the reader has the benefit to visually follow the sequence of events on the issue raised.

It also includes the spatiotemporal context of gene expression, and the interesting phenomenon of intergenomic interactions. DNA methylation has profound effects on how genes are expressed and ultimately on cellular, tissue and whole-body functions. The grounds for excitement stem from the fact that this old and frequently sterile dichotomy is now being fleshed out with real knowledge of how genes are controlled and how they respond to life situations.The pattern of modifications is referred to as a histone code and is extraordinarily difficult to read. She describes the nucleosome as DNA wrapped around “eight ping-pong balls … like a long liq­uorice whip around marshmallows”, and sees DNA as a film script, with plenty of room for interpretation and retakes.

That something else must be going on in addition to the instructions contained in the genetic code is clear from the following simple fact. These four chapters provide descriptions of very different conceptual approaches to epigenetics and examples and insight about epigenetic processes at very different levels of the epigenetic hierarchy. Most of the time these enzymes will only add a methyl group to a C (Cytosine) that is followed by G (Guanine). Methylation and imprinting of gene sequences are examples of epigenetics at the level of the structure and function of the gene, sometimes referred to as the phenotype of the gene, a concept that blurs (appropriately, we believe) the distinction between genotype and phenotype established over a hundred years ago.

The Epigenetics Revolution traces the thrilling path this discipline has taken over the last twenty years. I recently saw her give a public lecture on this subject, and she proved to be an excellent speaker, and probably unique in her use of strawberry laces and marshmallows to illustrate just how the DNA molecule wraps around the histone octamer to form the basic unit of chromatin, the nucleosome. Nessa Carey is a visiting professor at Imperial College in London and currently works in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, where she has specialized in epigenetics for nearly a decade.