Epigenetic Mechanisms of Genomic Imprinting: Common Themes in the Regulation of Imprinted Regions in Mammals, Plants, and Insects MacDonald 2012 Review Article

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Epigenome Metaphor

What's your favorite color of the rainbow? Now picture a rainbow and focus in on that color. Describe the scene. You're probably picturing a bright, sunny day on the beach. Okay, so let's change the environment. There's a factory producing smog behind you. There's a lot of pollution in the air. The sun is starting to look hazy, the rainbow starts to blur together. Now, when you look for your favorite color, you can's discern it from the next closest color. The colors bleed together--that's your environment expanding or contracting your epigenome. Your environment muddles the waters, muddles the genome, so to speak.