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Annotated Bibliography

The Science Behind Gene Regulation and How Dietary Affects Epigenome

Tracy Nguyen
Professor Malcolm Campbell
UWRIT 1103
19th October 2016

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Annotated Bibliography
Chaddha, Rima. A Tale of Two Mice. PBS. 01 Jul. 2007. Web. 19 Oct. 2016.
This is an interview with Dr. Dana Dolinoy. According to the interview, she attended
Duke University and now an Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the
University of Michigan. Since she leads the Environmental Epigenetics and Nutrition
Laboratory at University of Michigan, this source is admittedly reliable. In the interview,
she focused mostly on the nature and nurture debate. She said both genetics and the
environment have equal impact on our health because they are inextricably linked
through the epigenome. The interview includes brief background information of
epigenetics and a series of studies as well as experiments on mice. Most of scientific
experiments have been done on mice due to the fact that they share 99% common in the
genome with humans. At first they had two identical-twin Agouti mice. Agouti gene
makes the mice yellow and fat. Although the two came from the same mother and had the
same genome, one appeared to be yellow and obese, while the other was brown and
small. They then looked at the Agouti gene and discovered different amounts of
methylation, the placement of methyl group on a gene to either turn it on or off, on this
gene between two mice. Methylated Agouti gene suppressed the expression of the gene
and made the mouse small and brown instead of yellow and obese. Then they conducted
some experiments on a mother mouse to study how maternal nutrients and environmental
facts affect epigenome. She was exposed to a chemical called bisphenil-A, or BPA, and
given methyl supplement. BPA promotes the expression of Agouti gene while the methyl
supplement suppresses its expression. Then her Agouti babies were counted. She gave
birth to more Agouti mice with the exposure to the BPA and gave birth to brown mice

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when being given methylation supplement. Dr. Dolinoy was trying to show that we
couldnt tell whether genetics or the environment has a greater impact on our health. I
will use this to show how the nature vs. nurture debate has changed over time since
epigenetics was discovered. I could also use her background information on epigenetics
to explain the science behind it, so that readers could gain a bit insight of the subject.

Erick, Timothy. Epigenetics: How Nurture Shapes Our Nature. Footnote1, 14 Nov. 2014. Web.
19 Oct. 2016.
This is an article written by Timothy Erick, a Ph.D. candidate in Molecular Biology, Cell
Biology, and Biochemistry at Brown University. He has done some research on the topic
and I believe this source is reliable. This article is intended to be academic and
informative. He discusses evolution views of Darwin and Lamarck. He then goes more
into details how these theories of evolution shape our minds, raising the debate on nature
versus nurture in development. The debate is between advocates of genetic determinism,
people who believe development is driven upon hardwired genetic code, and
environmentalism, people who believe development is influenced by an organisms
interaction with its surrounding environment. Early debate was in the late 1950s and was
primarily on psychology. Later on, when epigenetics was discovered, most biologists
believed both nature and nurture play a role. The author mentioned various mechanisms
epigenetics uses to regulate gene expression. I will use this part in addition to my other
two sources on the background information. The debate he mentions answers a part of my
inquiry question so it will be included in this section.

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Moalem, Sharon, and Jonathan Prince. Survival of the Sickest: a Medical Maverick Discovers
Why We Need Disease. New York, William Morrow, 2007. Print. 19 Oct. 2016.
Dr. Sharon Moalem, author of Survival of the Sickest, is an award-winning scientist,
physician and New York Times bestselling author. His book Survival of the Sickest was
chosen as one of Amazons Best Science Books of the year and has been translated into
more than 35 languages. This book provides a fascinating glimpse into evolutionary
biology. It focuses on the connections between various diseases and genetic and
environmental factors. Every chapter covers a different aspect of disease and our bodies
and explains why some diseases go against the idea of survival of the fittest. Chapter 1
investigates an inherited disease called hemochromatosis, in which the body making too
much iron. It proves that this disease had shown some benefits to humans in the past
which made them keep being passed on. Chapter 2 talks about the survival of diabetes. In
the past, sugar helped keep people in colder regions maintain constant body temperature
since sugar had low freezing point. Therefore, diabetes remain in the human genome.
Chapter 3 discusses how humans produce melatonin to adapt to different regions of the
world in terms of sunlight. Melatonin acts as a shield to lower bodys exposure to harmful
light. While it protects the body, it also prevents the body from absorbing Vitamin D.
Chapter 5 shows the pathway parasitic worm known as Guinea worm, which is
responsible for causing a virulent disease, uses to hijack its hosts body and reproduce.
Knowing this pathway helps humans find a way to eradicate this disease. Chapter 6 and
chapter 7 involve epigenetics and this is the source I will use most for my paper. It is

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written in an easy-to-understand language and the author did an amazing job on

explaining the materials. The last chapter of the book explains why natural selection
favors physical and behavioral characteristics modern humans currently possess. I will
mostly use chapter 6 and 7 in my research paper since they are related to my topic. I will
use them to explain the background of epigenetics and how it works. In the book are
some helpful examples on maternal dietary effects on epigenetics that I can incorporate
into my paper.

Roseboom, Tessa, et al. Hungry in the womb: What are the consequences? Lessons from the
Dutch famine. Maturitas, vol. 70, no. 2, pp. 141-145. Science Direct. Oct. 2011. Web. 19
Oct. 2016.
At the end of World War 2, because the German blockade cut off the food supply, a
German-occupied part of Netherlands had to face extreme hunger known as the Dutch
famine of 1944-1945 or the Hongerwinter. The article provides an overview of the Dutch
famine and the consequences the famine left on the succeeding generations. The Dutch
famine was a disastrous event that happened on a well-nourished population. Because of
its experimental characteristics, the Dutch famine has been studied by many people. It is
a great example of how epigenetics permanently alters gene expression after a
generation-wide event. The famine mostly affected later health of unborn children during
that time due to prenatal undernourishment. Studies were conducted on children born
within the famine years and who were born before that. People who were conceived
during the famine were lighter at birth and more prone to diabetes, schizophrenia,

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depression, stress, etc. They also had a doubled rate of coronary heart disease later in life.
These are all products of the gene regulation mechanisms within our bodies in response
to traumatic event. In conclusion, the article, using studies from the famine, shows that
epigenetics left negative consequences on the offspring. This is a reviewed article
published by a group of authors from the Department of Clinical Epidemiology,
Biostatistics and Bioinformatics and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the
Academic Medical Center (AMC) in Amsterdam, Netherlands. They wrote this academic
article to put together their research and studies on people from the Dutch famine. This
source is reliable because the AMC is the most prominent medical center in Netherlands
and one of the largest hospitals. I will use this source as an example to answer my
question how diet during early development can have long-lasting effects on the genome.