NEUR 3402 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Pituitary Gland, Corticosterone, Neuroscience
24 Jan 2017
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Reading #2: epigenetics of neurobiology and behavior during development and. Early life environmental influences, especially those during sensitive periods of development can trigger functional changes in genes without altering the dna sequence itself. E. g. infant stress and quality of parental care are factors that can mark and infant"s genome and dictate gene expression patterns throughout the lifespan - leads to specific behavioural outcomes. Early life environmental influences can have long-lasting (permanent) effects on neurobiology and behaviour. Dna methylation and histone acetylation have now been linked to adulthood learning and memory, drug addiction,and several psychiatric and neurological illnesses. Posttranslational modifications of histones, including acetylation, phosphorylation, and methylation, mediate the interactions between histones and dna, and help determine whether dna is accessible for gene transcription. For example, acetylation of lysine residues of histones, a reaction catalyzed by enzymes known as histone acetyltransferases (hats), decreases the affinity between histones and dna.
