Timescales of human adaptation: the role of epigenetic processes

Epigenomics ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher W Kuzawa ◽  
Zaneta M Thayer
Keyword(s):  
Human Adaptation ◽  
Epigenetic Processes

scholarly journals Vitamin C—Sources, Physiological Role, Kinetics, Deficiency, Use, Toxicity, and Determination

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 615
Author(s):  
Martin Doseděl ◽  
Eduard Jirkovský ◽  
Kateřina Macáková ◽  
Lenka Krčmová ◽  
Lenka Javorská ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ascorbic Acid ◽  
Vitamin C ◽  
Iron Absorption ◽  
Plasma Concentrations ◽  
Physiological Role ◽  
Renal Stones ◽  
Anti Oxidant ◽  
High Doses ◽  
Epigenetic Processes

Vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid) has been known as an antioxidant for most people. However, its physiological role is much larger and encompasses very different processes ranging from facilitation of iron absorption through involvement in hormones and carnitine synthesis for important roles in epigenetic processes. Contrarily, high doses act as a pro-oxidant than an anti-oxidant. This may also be the reason why plasma levels are meticulously regulated on the level of absorption and excretion in the kidney. Interestingly, most cells contain vitamin C in millimolar concentrations, which is much higher than its plasma concentrations, and compared to other vitamins. The role of vitamin C is well demonstrated by miscellaneous symptoms of its absence—scurvy. The only clinically well-documented indication for vitamin C is scurvy. The effects of vitamin C administration on cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and infections are rather minor or even debatable in the general population. Vitamin C is relatively safe, but caution should be given to the administration of high doses, which can cause overt side effects in some susceptible patients (e.g., oxalate renal stones). Lastly, analytical methods for its determination with advantages and pitfalls are also discussed in this review.

Biopsychosocial pathways to mental health and disease across the lifespan: The emerging role of epigenetics

2020 ◽  
pp. 190-206
Author(s):  
Charlotte A.M. Cecil
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Regulate Gene Expression ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
Regulate Gene ◽  
Epigenetic Processes

The biopsychosocial (BPS) model of psychiatry has had a major impact on our modern conceptualization of mental illness as a complex, multi-determined phenomenon. Yet, interdisciplinary BPS work remains the exception, rather than the rule in psychiatry. It has been suggested that this may stem in part from a failure of the BPS model to clearly delineate the mechanisms through which biological, psychological, and social factors co-act in the development of mental illness. This chapter discusses how epigenetic processes that regulate gene expression, such as DNA methylation, are fast emerging as a candidate mechanism for BPS interactions, with potentially widespread implications for the way that psychiatric disorders are understood, assessed, and, perhaps in future, even treated.

scholarly journals Genes and environments, development and time

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (38) ◽  
pp. 23235-23241
Author(s):  
W. Thomas Boyce ◽  
Marla B. Sokolowski ◽  
Gene E. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Regulatory Networks ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Stressful Events ◽  
Critical Periods ◽  
Gene Environment ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Influence Gene Expression ◽  
Dynamic Interplay ◽  
Epigenetic Processes

A now substantial body of science implicates a dynamic interplay between genetic and environmental variation in the development of individual differences in behavior and health. Such outcomes are affected by molecular, often epigenetic, processes involving gene–environment (G–E) interplay that can influence gene expression. Early environments with exposures to poverty, chronic adversities, and acutely stressful events have been linked to maladaptive development and compromised health and behavior. Genetic differences can impart either enhanced or blunted susceptibility to the effects of such pathogenic environments. However, largely missing from present discourse regarding G–E interplay is the role of time, a “third factor” guiding the emergence of complex developmental endpoints across different scales of time. Trajectories of development increasingly appear best accounted for by a complex, dynamic interchange among the highly linked elements of genes, contexts, and time at multiple scales, including neurobiological (minutes to milliseconds), genomic (hours to minutes), developmental (years and months), and evolutionary (centuries and millennia) time. This special issue of PNAS thus explores time and timing among G–E transactions: The importance of timing and timescales in plasticity and critical periods of brain development; epigenetics and the molecular underpinnings of biologically embedded experience; the encoding of experience across time and biological levels of organization; and gene-regulatory networks in behavior and development and their linkages to neuronal networks. Taken together, the collection of papers offers perspectives on how G–E interplay operates contingently within and against a backdrop of time and timescales.

scholarly journals Trimethyllysine: From Carnitine Biosynthesis to Epigenetics

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (24) ◽  
pp. 9451
Author(s):  
Marijn N. Maas ◽  
Jordi C. J. Hintzen ◽  
Miriam R. B. Porzberg ◽  
Jasmin Mecinović
Keyword(s):  
Protein Function ◽  
Genetic Disorders ◽  
Enzymatic Reactions ◽  
Lysine Methylation ◽  
Nucleosome Assembly ◽  
Cellular Processes ◽  
Subsequent Effect ◽  
Control Protein ◽  
Epigenetic Processes

Trimethyllysine is an important post-translationally modified amino acid with functions in the carnitine biosynthesis and regulation of key epigenetic processes. Protein lysine methyltransferases and demethylases dynamically control protein lysine methylation, with each state of methylation changing the biophysical properties of lysine and the subsequent effect on protein function, in particular histone proteins and their central role in epigenetics. Epigenetic reader domain proteins can distinguish between different lysine methylation states and initiate downstream cellular processes upon recognition. Dysregulation of protein methylation is linked to various diseases, including cancer, inflammation, and genetic disorders. In this review, we cover biomolecular studies on the role of trimethyllysine in carnitine biosynthesis, different enzymatic reactions involved in the synthesis and removal of trimethyllysine, trimethyllysine recognition by reader proteins, and the role of trimethyllysine on the nucleosome assembly.

scholarly journals The role of nitrogen oxides in human adaptation to hypoxia

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Denny Z. Levett ◽  
◽  
Bernadette O. Fernandez ◽  
Heather L. Riley ◽  
Daniel S. Martin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nitrogen Oxides ◽  
Adaptation To Hypoxia ◽  
Human Adaptation

scholarly journals The Role of Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) in the Epigenetic Regulation of Bone Metabolism and Osteoporosis

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (22) ◽  
pp. 8682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurizio Muraca ◽  
Alfredo Cappariello
Keyword(s):  
Bone Metabolism ◽  
Extracellular Vesicles ◽  
Epigenetic Regulation ◽  
Bone Cells ◽  
Disease Onset ◽  
Powerful Means ◽  
Fine Regulation ◽  
Non Coding Rnas ◽  
Epigenetic Processes

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are complex phospholipidic structures actively released by cells. EVs are recognized as powerful means of intercellular communication since they contain many signaling molecules (including lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids). In parallel, changes in epigenetic processes can lead to changes in gene function and finally lead to disease onset and progression. Recent breakthroughs have revealed the complex roles of non-coding RNAs (microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs)) in epigenetic regulation. Moreover, a substantial body of evidence demonstrates that non-coding RNAs can be shuttled among the cells and tissues via EVs, allowing non-coding RNAs to reach distant cells and exert systemic effects. Resident bone cells, including osteoclasts, osteoblasts, osteocytes, and endothelial cells, are tightly regulated by non-coding RNAs, and many of them can be exported from the cells to neighboring ones through EVs, triggering pathological conditions. For these reasons, researchers have also started to exploit EVs as a theranostic tool to address osteoporosis. In this review, we summarize some recent findings regarding the EVs’ involvement in the fine regulation of non-coding RNAs in the context of bone metabolism and osteoporosis.

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY OF OLDER PEOPLE IN POLAND – SELECTED ISSUES

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 122
Author(s):  
Tomasz Różański
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Old Age ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Educational Activity ◽  
Human Adaptation

This article is devoted to the issues of educational activity of the elderly in Poland. Defining the term “old age” and drawing attention to the issue of human adaptation to old age were the starting points of the discussion. Next, the most important issues concerning the activity of seniors were raised. Further discussed were the conditions and objectives of the educational activity of older people. An attention was also drawn to the role of institutions, promoting education and culture, in supporting the development of seniors. Moreover, the article refers to the results of selected studies of the issues discussed.  

scholarly journals The role of epigenetics, particularly DNA methylation, in the evolution of caste in insect societies

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1826) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin P. Oldroyd ◽  
Boris Yagound
Keyword(s):  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Epigenetic Mechanisms ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Eusocial Insects ◽  
Insect Societies ◽  
Divergent Development ◽  
Worker Castes ◽  
Epigenetic Processes

Eusocial insects can be defined as those that live in colonies and have distinct queens and workers. For most species, queens and workers arise from a common genome, and so caste-specific developmental trajectories must arise from epigenetic processes. In this review, we examine the epigenetic mechanisms that may be involved in the regulation of caste dimorphism. Early work on honeybees suggested that DNA methylation plays a causal role in the divergent development of queen and worker castes. This view has now been challenged by studies that did not find consistent associations between methylation and caste in honeybees and other species. Evidence for the involvement of methylation in modulating behaviour of adult workers is also inconsistent. Thus, the functional significance of DNA methylation in social insects remains equivocal. This article is part of the theme issue ‘How does epigenetics influence the course of evolution?’

scholarly journals The Epigenetic Landscape of Vascular Calcification: An Integrative Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 980 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-Chou Hou ◽  
Chien-Lin Lu ◽  
Tzu-Hang Yuan ◽  
Min-Tser Liao ◽  
Chia-Ter Chao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Histone Modification ◽  
Vascular Calcification ◽  
Calcium Deposition ◽  
Non Coding Rna ◽  
Physico Chemical ◽  
Variable Combination ◽  
Epigenetic Signatures ◽  
Epigenetic Processes

Vascular calcification (VC) is an important complication among patients of advanced age, those with chronic kidney disease, and those with diabetes mellitus. The pathophysiology of VC encompasses passive occurrence of physico-chemical calcium deposition, active cellular secretion of osteoid matrix upon exposure to metabolically noxious stimuli, or a variable combination of both processes. Epigenetic alterations have been shown to participate in this complex environment, through mechanisms including DNA methylation, non-coding RNAs, histone modifications, and chromatin changes. Despite such importance, existing reviews fail to provide a comprehensive view of all relevant reports addressing epigenetic processes in VC, and cross-talk between different epigenetic machineries is rarely examined. We conducted a systematic review based on PUBMED and MEDLINE databases up to 30 September 2019, to identify clinical, translational, and experimental reports addressing epigenetic processes in VC; we retrieved 66 original studies, among which 60.6% looked into the pathogenic role of non-coding RNA, followed by DNA methylation (12.1%), histone modification (9.1%), and chromatin changes (4.5%). Nine (13.6%) reports examined the discrepancy of epigenetic signatures between subjects or tissues with and without VC, supporting their applicability as biomarkers. Assisted by bioinformatic analyses blending in each epigenetic component, we discovered prominent interactions between microRNAs, DNA methylation, and histone modification regarding potential influences on VC risk.

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