Can Your Environment Affect Your DNA? | Epigenetics Explained

What is a genome?

• All of an organism's inherited information.

• A type of cell found in the body.

• A specific gene that determines a trait.

• A protein that helps build cells.

What is the main focus of epigenetics?

• Studying how DNA's sequence changes over time.

• Studying how genes are turned on or off without changing the DNA itself.

• Studying the physical appearance of identical twins.

• Studying how cells get energy from food.

Which of these acts like a "switch" to tell a gene not to express itself?

• Histones

• Methyl groups

• Proteins

• DNA strands

How can environmental factors like diet and stress affect a person's health, even if their DNA doesn't change?

• They directly alter the sequence of DNA.

• They cause new genes to appear in the body.

• They change the epigenetic tags, which control how genes are expressed.

• They only affect a person's mood, not their physical health.

What is epigenetics?

• The study of how genes change their DNA sequence over time.

• The study of how environmental factors can affect gene expression without changing the DNA sequence.

• The study of how organisms adapt to their environment through natural selection.

• The study of how genetic mutations cause diseases.

How did scientists initially believe epigenetic information was passed down from parents to children?

• They believed all epigenetic tags were passed down directly.

• They thought most epigenetic tags were stripped off the genome before being passed on.

• They believed only beneficial epigenetic tags were passed down.

• They thought epigenetic information was not passed down at all.

In the Norrbotten study, what was observed about people who experienced a season of abundant food compared to those who experienced starvation?

• Those who starved lived shorter lives.

• Those who had abundant food lived longer lives.

• Those who had abundant food lived shorter lives, and this effect was passed to future generations.

• There was no difference in lifespan between the two groups.

What does epigenetics suggest about the development of a person's genetic traits?

• Genetic traits are solely determined by the genes inherited from parents.

• Genetic traits are only influenced by a person's environment during their lifetime.

• Genetic traits are a combination of inherited genes and environmental factors.

• Genetic traits are fixed at birth and cannot be changed.