Epigenetic markers

Patent Granted Epigenetics is the study of changes in the expression of genes caused by certain base pairs in DNA, or RNA, being "turned off" or "turned on" again, through chemical reactions. In biology, and specifically genetics, epigenetics is mostly the study of heritable genetic changes that are not caused by changes in the DNA sequence; to a lesser extent it also can be used to describe the study of stable, long-term alterations in the transcriptional potential of a cell that are not necessarily heritable. Unlike simple genetics based on changes to the DNA sequence (the genotype), the changes in gene expression or cellular phenotype of epigenetics have other causes, thus use of the term epi- (Greek: επί- over, outside of, around) -genetics.