Genetic editing in humans

[Bengalzona]

(03-20-2016, 04:32 PM)Beaker Wrote: The article was interesting, but left me wondering two things:

1. What produced the methyl groups? Were they chemical in nature, say from hormone response, or were they simply free methyls that attached themselves in response to nurture or the lack of it.

2. Why do the methyl groups only attach to cytosine? If that's true, then sequencing the DNA to see which genes contain cytosine would allow certain genes to be targeted for treatment.

They also said there were markers in the blood. If that's the case, then blood tests could reveal who is a viable target for treatment. And can treatment include injection of acetyl groups that would/could maybe offset the changes caused by the epigenetic attachment of the methyl groups.

Thanks for reading the article.

1. I honestly have no idea. I would assume the latter, but I'm no scientist (obviously).

2. Once again, I don't know. But I would think targeted treatment would be possible and likely in the future.