• Question: Can DNA structure or activity change with enviromental factors?

    Asked by anon-256630 on 11 Jun 2020.
    • Photo: Alena Pance

      Alena Pance answered on 11 Jun 2020:

      Hi Claudia, absolutely. Environmental factors can modulate epigenetics. This is the structure of the genome that consists in the overall packaging of the DNA by the histone nucleosomes, the cores of 4 histone proteins that the DNA is wrapped around. This structure depends very much on the state of the histones that can be modified in many different ways and as a consequence of these modifications the DNA is more or less tightly packed. This packaging determines whether the genome or regions of it can be expressed or active. The modifications of histones are quite varied and some of them can be induced or modified by environmental factors.

    • Photo: Elaine Duncan

      Elaine Duncan answered on 17 Jul 2020:

      Hi Claudia, just to add to Alena’s point, there is evidence that some environmental factors can cause structural DNA damage. For example, UV light may cause breakage of the DNA strand which is why it’s important to wear sun cream to protect your skin cells from damage and mutations which could lead to cancer development.

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