Biology Enhancement

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Case 3: Laboratory Rats
Andres Felipe Rodriguez 
Valeria Ruiz 
Sara Cataño 
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1. What is epigenetics and how does it work?

 Epigenetics is the study of the mechanisms that regulate gene expression without altering the DNA
sequence. Establishes the relationship between genetic and environmental influences that determine a
phenotype. In the rats the epigenetic is sexual dysfunction and how is inhered into the next generations

2. What is an epigenetic trait?

 An epigenetic trait is a stably heritable phenotype resulting from changes in a chromosome without
alterations in the DNA sequence, in the case of this rats is the sexual dysfunction, and the kidney problems

3. What causes epigenetics?

 The study happens when there are hereditary changes in people when they should not happen because what is
studied in epigenetics are those changes in organisms but only in phenotypes, in the rat’s case the cause is
that they were exposed to a chemical

4. What is the relationship between the phenotype of some organisms and their environmental dynamics?

 An example that we can give with how an organism has a relationship with its phenotypes and the environment
in which it lives we can see it with the species that live in the desert, normally they have thin hair to
withstand the heat and a skin that can resist the sun, in addition to the fact that the color of their hair is
similar to that of sand to camouflage themselves and go unnoticed with predators
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Case #3 Lab
 Rats
Initially, we can emphasize that this is a type of epigenetics, which is why genetic inheritance is
affected, the situation that the laboratory rats go through in this case is that they were given a
pesticide that they normally use for grapes, which is called Vinclozolin. Some things happened
to the rats that gave them that pesticide, such as that the quality of their sperm was very low in
addition to having kidney and prostate problems.

 In our research we also saw that they also spoke of humans in the cases where they were
exposed to this chemical, in their case something very similar happens to rats because it is
related to men and their performance with the quality of their sperm
 Case #3 Lab Rats
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 Then the article tells us that when these two species are in their stage of sexual
definition or sexual differentiation and are exposed to these chemicals, they will cause
anomalies such that women become less feminine and more masculine and men have the
opposite reaction, which is that they become more feminine than masculine in their
phenotype.

 Focusing on the experiment itself, some pregnant rats were injected with this chemical every day in the
stage of gender differentiation, which would be the 14th day of gestation to the 3rd postnatal day and kept
them under observation.

 At the time of birth, these offspring were divided between men and
women to differentiate the growth of the species, as we had said
before, the growth of these rats was like that of the androgens, so
the development of the male persons was very similar to that of the
females.
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Case #3 Lab

Rats
When these rats entered adolescence most of the male rats could not fertilize another rat, so the
study did not find any spermatozoids in the uterus of the other rat and that was because the
males had a series of unusual reproductive malformations when the males were necropsied one
year after they died. Many male rats had suprainguinal ectopic scrotums / testes, a vaginal
pouch, epididymal granulomas, and small or absent sex accessory glands.

 When these rats entered adolescence most of the male rats could not fertilize another rat, so the
study did not find any spermatozoids in the uterus of the other rat and that was because the
males had a series of unusual reproductive malformations when the males were necropsied one
year after they died. Many male rats had suprainguinal ectopic scrotums / testes, a vaginal
pouch, epididymal granulomas, and small or absent sex accessory glands.
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