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Concept

Epigenetics

The image depicts a close-up view of a DNA molecule with chemical marks and histone structures, symbolizing epigenetic modifications that influence gene expression without altering the DNA sequence.

The study of heritable changes in gene expression that do not involve changes to the underlying DNA sequence. Chemical marks on DNA itself and on the histones around which it is wound can switch genes on or off, and the pattern of marks is copied — imperfectly — when cells divide. This is how a liver cell stays a liver cell when it divides, even though its DNA is identical to that of a neuron.

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