**Epigenetics and Genome Imprinting Explained****Epigenetics** is the study of heritable traits that are not induced by changes to DNA sequence. These changes can be inherited during somatic cell division to regulate the daughter cells of an individual organism. Most epigenetic modifications are reset prior to meiosis. However, some can be inherited across generations. For instance, environmental factors such as nutrition and chemical exposure can induce heritable epigenetic changes in animal models (Relton and Davey Smith, 2012).**Genome Imprinting** is a type of epigenetic modification where a cell or organism can reduce the expression of a gene, thereby silencing the gene. This process is caused by DNA methylation and histone modification, which reduce the expression of a gene in a parent-of-origin-specific manner. This means either the maternally derived allele or the paternally derived allele is imprinted and silenced. Expression occurs only through the non-imprinted alleles from either the mother or the father. Importantly, genome imprinting always silences the same parent's allele of a particular gene.**Classification Task:**- **Genome Imprinting** - Boxes are provided for students to categorize features as either related to genome imprinting or not.**Answer Bank:**- Gene expression determined by the parent of origin- Epigenetic silencing by translocation- Epigenetic silencing by DNA methylation- Gene expression knockdown by mRNA degradation- Maternally contributed mRNA altering the phenotype of offspringStudents are instructed to classify each feature according to whether it describes genome imprinting or not.

The genome of an organism is a full copy of its genetic information. The proteins encoded by this genetic material are detrimental to the proteome. Genome editing methods induce double-stranded breaks in the DNA double helix, allowing the insertion or removal of a particular DNA sequence.Answer: Genome imprinting: gene expression determined by the parent of origin epigenetic silencing by DNA methylation Not genome imprinting: epigenetic silencing by translocation gene expression knockdown by mRNA degradation maternally contributed mRNA altering the phenotype of offspringExplanation: Genomic imprinting is a phenomenon in which an allele's expression in the progeny depends on whether it was acquired from a male or female parent. Chromosomes imprint during gametogenesis. Imprinting ultimately leads to hemizygous genes, which means that the phenotype is either dictated by the paternal or maternal allele. Thus it includes silencing the gene through methylation. When there is no genomic imprinting, the phenotype of the child is changed by maternally supplied mRNA, gene expression reduction by mRNA degradation, and epigenetic inactivation via translocation.