- Epigenetics has been often defined as “heritable changes in gene function that occur without a change in the nucleotide sequence. ” [1]
- Epigenetics can be defined in a variety of ways. In one way, the “generation” mentioned in our question above could be referred to cell generations in which it would involve mitotic inheritance. At times, “generation” could refer to species generation, which would concern meiotic inheritance [1]
Figure 1. Relationships between type 2 diabetes, genetics, epigenetics and environment [1]
Adapted from Ling & Groop, 2009
I like that the first bullet point is clear and concise. The second bullet point is somewhat confusing because it doesn’t clarify which definition of generation will be used. I think an easy solution is to just include one more sentence that states something like: “We will define generation as …”
It may be advantageous to combine this section with the Answer Overview section. This page is relatively short, so I don’t think it’s necessary to devote a page to it. In addition, the figure seems more relevant to the answer than to the definition of epigenetics alone.