Epigenetics Flashcards
(7 cards)
What is epigenetics?
Stem cells can become any type of cell, when they begin to role down a hill they can no longer swap valleys to become another cell type
What is a totipotent stem cell?
A cell which can become all types of cells including placental cells
What is a pluripotent cell?
A cell which can become any type of cell apart from placental cells
What is a unipotent cell?
Fully specialised and can only make more of its cell type
How did Dolly the sheep come to be?
They took 2 sheep - one donated cytoplasm the other mammary gland. A direct current pulse then led to a blastocyst which was placed into a surrogate ewe
How do you do DNA methylation?
Add a methyl group which silences gene expression. This is done through DNA methyltransferase
What do histone modifications do?
They create nucleosomes which go on to become chromosomes
