Plants are the primary producers and they give food to all. Before I talk about epigenetic regulation I have to explain what it is. Epigenetics is the study of heritable phenotype changes that do not involve changes in the nucleotide sequence. But epigenetic modifications change the physical structure of DNA. Epigenetic modifications are functionally relevant changes to the genome, but that does not change in the nucleotide sequence. Generally, epigenetic modifications are produced by two mechanisms, that are methylation and histone modifications.
Identical twins are the best example of epigenetic regulation even though they share the same DNA. Their experience in their life may induce the expression of some genes and they behave differently, look differently, because of their modification to the environment. If they are given with the same environment, the modification may occur, which is due to epigenetic regulation that basically does not come from the DNA sequence. And these changes are reversible because they do not change the DNA sequence.
What are the uses of such modifications?
These modifications are part of the survival of the fittest theory of Darwin. An organism may face many types of stresses or difficult situations in its environment. Usually, animals may migrate from stress or from its environmental conditions, especially in the case of fast migrating organisms that move away from cold or heat stress. This happens because they are moving organisms. It is the most suitable and very easy process for them. So animals generally do not require a high level of epigenetic modifications.
In plants, these are the most difficult things that they cannot move or migrate. If any stress occurs what do they do? They have to modify themselves, they have to modify their physiology in order to cope up with the environment. Yes, this kind of activity is more common in plants than animals. Most of the epigenetic modifications yet identified in epigenetics are predominantly dealt with or identified in plants.
What are the applications of Epigenetics?
Epigenetics has wonderful applications in the field of medical science. Many diseases can be cured by epigenetic modification or induced epigenetic modification and many types of research are going on these aspects.
In agriculture, epigenetics is the most promising field of science that can be used for modifying the plant's property according to the environment. Climate-smart crops can be developed from the information on epigenetic modifications and more studies into the sector can improve future agriculture because now most crops are affected by climate change. It can be overcome by epigenetics. It's a science that has significant scope in the future.
Sileesh Mullasseri
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