This is the first comprehensive, authoritative, and easy-to-understand introduction to modern epigenetics. Authored by two active researchers in the field, it introduces key concepts one step at a time, enabling students at all levels to benefit from it. The authors begin by presenting a historical overview that places epigenetics in context, and makes it clear that the field is not (as some presume) completely new. Next, they introduce and explain key epigenetic mechanisms, and discuss the roles these mechanisms may play in inheritance, organism development, health and disease, behavior, evolution, ecology, and the interaction of individual organisms with their environments. Coverage includes: non-coding RNAs in each kingdom; allelic interactions; CRYSPR; gene silencing; epigenetics of germline and epigenetic memory; epigenetic regulation of genome stability and plant stress response; and much more. The authors conclude by offering significant new insights into how knowledge of epigenetics and epigenomics may promote the development of technologies and solutions in areas ranging from behavioral neuroscience to cancer treatment, toxicology to the development of hardier crops.
