¡Qué gran idea! ¡Como me hubiera gustado estudiar ciencia así!. Siempre que la canción sea decente, claro.

Nature Reviews Genetics 8, 253-262 (April 2007) | doi:10.1038/nrg2045

Focus on: Epigenetics
Environmental epigenomics and disease susceptibility

Randy L. Jirtle1 and Michael K. Skinner2 About the authors
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Abstract

Epidemiological evidence increasingly suggests that environmental exposures early in development have a role in susceptibility to disease in later life. In addition, some of these environmental effects seem to be passed on through subsequent generations. Epigenetic modifications provide a plausible link between the environment and alterations in gene expression that might lead to disease phenotypes. An increasing body of evidence from animal studies supports the role of environmental epigenetics in disease susceptibility. Furthermore, recent studies have demonstrated for the first time that heritable environmentally induced epigenetic modifications underlie reversible transgenerational alterations in phenotype. Methods are now becoming available to investigate the relevance of these phenomena to human disease.

Review

Nature Reviews Genetics 8, 272-285 (April 2007) | doi:10.1038/nrg2072

Focus on: Epigenetics
Transposable elements and the epigenetic regulation of the genome

R. Keith Slotkin1 and Robert Martienssen1 About the authors
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Abstract

Overlapping epigenetic mechanisms have evolved in eukaryotic cells to silence the expression and mobility of transposable elements (TEs). Owing to their ability to recruit the silencing machinery, TEs have served as building blocks for epigenetic phenomena, both at the level of single genes and across larger chromosomal regions. Important progress has been made recently in understanding these silencing mechanisms. In addition, new insights have been gained into how this silencing has been co-opted to serve essential functions in ‘host’ cells, highlighting the importance of TEs in the epigenetic regulation of the genome.