Epigenome's environmental sensitivity and its impact on health
Book Chapter
Singh, R, Rathour, R, Thakur, IS et al. (2022). Epigenome's environmental sensitivity and its impact on health
. 451-478. 10.1016/B978-0-12-823500-3.00009-1
Singh, R, Rathour, R, Thakur, IS et al. (2022). Epigenome's environmental sensitivity and its impact on health
. 451-478. 10.1016/B978-0-12-823500-3.00009-1
Climate change has been associated with a range of health complications in humans and other organisms; however, how climate-related anthropogenic environmental changes produce health deficits at the organismal level remains to be fully understood. Organism adaptation to changes in the environment has been generally corelated with genomic alterations. However, chemical tags/marks on both DNA and mRNA, without altering their base sequences, added by abiotic and biotic environmental stressors are being traced and have aroused the attention of molecular biologists to examine the role of epigenetics in understanding the climate-associated health deficits. Climate change can induce phenotypic plasticity in living organisms which refers to differed phenotypic expression due to differences in the environment despite the presence of the same genotype. The epigenome compared to the genome of organisms is more sensitive to changes in our environment. Climate change modifies the epigenome of organisms, which has been shown to impact ecosystems. Several aspects of climate modifying environmental conditions, such as temperature and toxins, influence the genomes of organisms by influencing the epigenetic factors. The present chapter discusses how epigenetics can help us understand the mechanism(s) of harmful effects of climate change, especially on human health.
