Ghost in Your Genes

As part of our genetics and biotechnology unit today we watched, Ghost in Your Genes, which was directed by Sarah Holt and Nigel Paterson as part of PBS’s science series NOVA…and holy cow! I have not been able to stop thinking about this documentary and the effects epigenetics has on my life. Who knew that your lifestyle and upbringing could be so closely related to who you are as a person!

Courtesy of PBS

I learned about so many interesting experiments. Such as one done on mice with an agouti gene that is switched on all the time blocking a receptor in the satiation center of the brain, leading the mice to be endlessly hungry. Scientists fed pregnant mice with the agouti gene a diet rich in B12 and folic acid which actually resulted in their babies having a methyl molecule tag on the agouti gene, making the babies skinny rather than fat. This was mind-blowing to me because this experiment truly emphasized how important aspects of your lifestyle like diet are on your future children. 

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

This also made me wonder…what effects could a highly processed diet during pregnancy have on one’s child? In Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock ate every meal from McDonalds for a month and faced numerous repercussions. He gained 24.5 pounds, increased his cholesterol to 230 mg/dL, and experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and fat accumulation on his liver. I am so curious as to whether this could have an effect on his epigenetic patterns. Or, if this would affect his children if he were to have done this experiment as a teenager when his gametes are formed. 

Courtesy of Youtube

Another experiment I enjoyed learning about was relating to rats. Scientists Michael Meaney and Moshe Szyf believed that experience itself could change the epigenome. So in order to prove this, two types of rats were distinguished: rats born to nurturing mothers, shown by licking and grooming, and rats born to mothers who embodied the “nature” in nature versus nurture (did not lick or groom). The results of the experiment demonstrated that the behavior of the mother during early development has an impact on offspring years later. Less nurtured rats had multiple epigenetic marks silencing a gene that lowers levels of stress, where nurtured rats better handled stress because nothing was dimming the gene’s activity that lowers stress. Crazy!

Courtesy Amoeba Sisters

This experiment demonstrates how maternal behavior can essentially sculpt the genome of one’s babies. Which reminds me of an experiment my friend in AP Psychology told me about that was done in the 13th century by Frederick II who was the German king at the time. He wanted to see what language babies would naturally grow up speaking without any intervention. In doing so, Frederick II ordered a group of babies to be separated from their mothers and taken care of by different nurses who did not speak or touch the infants affectionately. The result? All the babies died, leading people to believe (with insight from current-day research) that humans cannot flourish without the influence of love. Dr. Dean Ornish believes love and survival are coexisting factors to our existence, and anything that does not promote love leads to premature death.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Dr. Dean Ornish also discussed how when asking a wide range of scientists, “why are human beings so vitally dependent on love?”, the general consensus was that there is no clear answer. This makes me think of epigenetics and how expressing love during one’s upbringing can have such a significant impact on one’s personality and lifestyle. For example, in the documentary scientists discussed how our personalities are linked to our epigenome. Abuse, neglect, and harsh discipline during a child’s upbringing can lead to that child later getting diabetes, heart diseases, obesity, and depression.

Now I’m wondering…could having a religious upbringing or lifestyle affect one’s epigenetics? A study demonstrated that, “frequent attendance at religious services was associated with significantly lower risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality among women”. When reflecting on this result, the idea that religious people constantly feel loved or even “nurtured” by God, and the positive results from the mice who were nurtured, I am inclined to think that a religious upbringing can affect one’s epigenetics.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

This documentary also made me think about the lifestyle choices my grandparents made after hearing about the amazing discovery done by Lars Olov Bygren and Marcus Pembrey. By studying the births, deaths, and harvest of a Swedish village in the Arctic Circle the two scientists discovered a significant link between the diet in one generation’s effect on the life expectancy of another. This reminds of medical pedigrees and how with genetic information and additional data, we can find important patterns within our families that help inform us on what lifestyle choices to make depending on whether we are predisposed for any genetic conditions. 

Wow! How crazy is it to think that the human genome project was just the beginning of an endless discovery! I genuinely learned and gained so much newfound curiosity from Ghost in Your Genes and cannot wait to keep learning about epigenetics! Remember, DNA is not your destiny!

It may get to a point where they [humankind] realize that you live your life as a sort of guardian of your genome. It seems to me you’ve got to be careful of it because it’s not just you…you’re also looking after it [genome] for your children and grandchildren. It is changing the way we think about inheritance forever.

- Marcus Pembrey, Ghost in Your Genes