EPIGENETICS IN PREGNANCY

ARIO DANIANTO
INTRODUCTION……(2)
• The human body consists of trillions of
cells
• Inside the cell nucleus  a chromosome
 made up of genes
• Genes are individual instruction unit that
tell the body how to develop and
function
• The four basic bases of DNA (A,T,G,C)
are element that are build genes
• This sequence of bases determines of the
way of genes
 INTRODUCTION……(3)

• Maintaining cellular identity and function is most probably effected by using so-
called “epigenetic” mechanisms
• The word “epigenetics” was first used by Conrad Waddington in 1942
• “a branch of biology which studies the causal interactions between genes and their
products which bring the phenotype into being

Armstrong L, Epigenetics. 2014 Garland Sccience

 INTRODUCTION……. (4)

• The study of changes in gene function that are mitotically and/or meiotically
heritable and that do not entail a change in the sequence of DNA
• Epigenetic regulation controls transcription at three levels
- DNA (DNA methylation)
- Protein (histone modifications)
- RNA (non-coding RNAs)

Armstrong L, Epigenetics. 2014 Garland Sccience

DNA METHYLATION
The cytosine moiety of cytosine–guanine(CpG)
dinucleotides methylated at carbon 5 to form 5’methyl-
cytosine

S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) as a methyl donor

Catalyse by DNA methyltranferase (DNMT)

Methylation of cytosine in CpG-rich regions (i.e., CpG

islands) located in or near gene promoters results in gene
silencing
HISTONE MODIFICATIONS

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