Is Epigenetics nature or nurture?

Question

The central dogma of biology revolves around nature. DNA is the perfect medium for transferring information. The process of how this happens is through replication, transcription, and translation. Nurture is the belief that the environment and our experiences shape our DNA. There is ample support for both arguments. Is Epigenetics nature or nurture? Provide examples and use specific terminology from your text and experience.

Answer 1

Hi Rose,

Epigenetics combines elements of both nature and nurture. From my understanding, ultimately, it would be the "nurture" or the environmental factors that are cause these changes but the genetic pre-dispositions (nature) would also need to exist in the first place. Let's take schizophrenia for example. There is ample research stating that schizophrenia has strong genetic components. An individual's first psychotic episode can be triggered by stress, drugs etc. These environmental triggers react with the genes to turn them "on".

It is however possible for an individual to develop schizophrenia without a family history, but it is not as common. Scientists hypothesize that environmental factors may change the gene, but that of course is not epigenetics as epigenetics do not involve changes in chromosomes or DNA sequences, just the expression of the gene. Hope this helps!

Best,

Stephanie