Epigenetics

[Adrienne]

I am suggesting this new topic after viewing the muster dog topic. Epigenetics is the study of how the environment impacts the expression of genes within DNA, it can be a reversible turning on/off of gene expression in response to environmental factors, but relevantly to keeping and breeding animals, changes in the expression of genes can potentially be passed on to subsequent generations. So perhaps this has something to do with the look and type and behaviours of an animal which is conceived, whelped and raised in the environment for which it was bred?

 

I try to keep my animals in ways which allow all their behaviours and physical attributes to be fully engaged. For instance, all my pups are outside all day and over night also from 21 days. They have a cosy bed of course, but their little coats and ears and eyes are subject to the air, weather, changing natural light etc. I think it makes a difference to how they grow and behave. 

 

Do any other breeders consider epigenetic factors?

[Adrienne]

And I would consider epigenetics a very good reason for not buying a puppy from a situation where sires and dams are not living an ordinary full and enriched life. I don't think enough is said about the life of breeding animals to puppy buyers and who it really does matter a LOT.

[Pjrt]

This is a really interesting topic. I find epigenetics endlessly fascinating. 
 

[sandgrubber]

3 hours ago, Adrienne said:

I am suggesting this new topic after viewing the muster dog topic. Epigenetics is the study of how the environment impacts the expression of genes within DNA, it can be a reversible turning on/off of gene expression in response to environmental factors, but relevantly to keeping and breeding animals, changes in the expression of genes can potentially be passed on to subsequent generations. So perhaps this has something to do with the look and type and behaviours of an animal which is conceived, whelped and raised in the environment for which it was bred?

 

I try to keep my animals in ways which allow all their behaviours and physical attributes to be fully engaged. For instance, all my pups are outside all day and over night also from 21 days. They have a cosy bed of course, but their little coats and ears and eyes are subject to the air, weather, changing natural light etc. I think it makes a difference to how they grow and behave. 

 

Do any other breeders consider epigenetic factors?

I'm no longer a breeder but somewhat geeky about genetics.  My impression is that epigenetics is potentially important,  but there's a lot of trendy garbage written about it and it's going to take a decade or two before there's a solid evidence base.

[DogsAndTheMob]

44 minutes ago, sandgrubber said:

I'm no longer a breeder but somewhat geeky about genetics.  My impression is that epigenetics is potentially important,  but there's a lot of trendy garbage written about it and it's going to take a decade or two before there's a solid evidence base.

That’s a really good point. It seems that sometimes the interpretation gets ahead of the science and questionable beliefs get embedded in our culture. 

[Adrienne]

So I went looking for trendy garbage on epigenetics and... well yes, ARGH! Seriously though it is easy to ignore that guff (If you think hard enough you can cure your cancer through epigenetic FFS is there nothing that Kooks won't grab onto .. it seems not). 

1 hour ago, sandgrubber said:

I'm no longer a breeder but somewhat geeky about genetics.  My impression is that epigenetics is potentially important,  but there's a lot of trendy garbage written about it and it's going to take a decade or two before there's a solid evidence base

 

There is no doubt about our environment impacting our genetic expression, that's pretty standard I would think. Genes turning on and off in response to environment happens every season when animals get a winter coat, or shed their coat for summer. Perhaps what is less understood is the potential heritability of epigenetic markers. 

[Mairead]

Trendy garbage more likely at the dot com sites than the dot org or dot edu sites. 

Even then the sample sizes in dogs may be small and/or only one breed.

Step up and volunteer for research whenever you can.

 

[Adrienne]

9 minutes ago, Mairead said:

Trendy garbage more likely at the dot com sites than the dot org or dot edu sites. 

I think this is why I was unaware of the garbage. There is a lot of serious science done and lots of good info available. I have never looked into it re breeding dogs, more just livestock in general and in humans - so mammals really. And while I haven't done in depth research I got the gist of the importance of an animals history and environment as being very impactful on phenotype.

 

I actually came across epigenetics when researching about what breed of horse I should buy as a novice. I ended up getting an unhandled passively trapped Brumby from The Guy Fawkes Heritage Horse Association. I did this because being a novice I needed a horse that was a horse and nothing else - as in being sure of it's history and physical and mental soundness.  

 

I did have a quick squiz just now searching relating to dog breeding. Will continue looking, but on the face of it why aren't Kennel Clubs the world over jumping on this and participating because they (the Clubs) are a known pool of Breeders of all the breeds? (They may be and I don't know about it). In particular because epigenetic mechanisms are known to influence susceptibility to diseases such as diabetes etc. And there is a lot of evidence re maternal skills, early socialisation (or rather early isolation) having big hereditary impacts, along with diet etc on temperament and behaviours.

 

 

[coneye]

whats epigenetics in laymans terms

 

[persephone]

9 hours ago, coneye said:

whats epigenetics in laymans terms

 

Epigenetics is the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work. Unlike genetic changes, epigenetic changes are reversible and do not change your DNA sequence, but they can change how your body reads a DNA sequence.

[Adrienne]

Search engine history and terms influences results offered up by Google. I have copied this short (book) abstract from Science Direct, unfortunately the links are not active in it, I never copied and pasted a thing from online before, so I don't know.

 

Just briefly, it contains some key words for increasing understanding of what epigenetics is and people could search those terms with the word livestock included which will push them towards results focused on Breeding animals, on which commercial livestock are having the most research done in the area because epigenetics hold very valuable understandings which will increase their productivity.

 

Phenotype in layman's terms is what we can see about an animal - what it looks like, and what behaviour traits it displays. In the Pure-bred dog breeding world it is 100% about  phenotype!  

 

Sourced from Science Direct.

 

 

ScienceDirect

 

 

Handbook of Epigenetics (Second edition)

The New Molecular and Medical Genetics

2017, Pages 441-463

 

Abstract

The animal breeding act has developed from visual assessment of desirable traits, use of complex quantitative genetic tools, animal breeding models and reproductive technologies to the genomics era and is potentially moving toward exploitation of the epigenomics phenomena. Current breeding schemes only account for part of the phenotypic variance in traits while the elusive portion could be due to other factors including epigenetics. Numerous lines of evidence have shown that epigenetic marks (DNA methylation, histone modifications, chromatin remodeling, and noncoding RNA regulation) profoundly influence livestock growth and development, and phenotypic outcomes. Thus, phenotypic outcome is a multilevel interaction between the genome, epigenome, environmental factors, as well as other nongenetic factors. This chapter will present an overview of the historical development of the animal breeding art, as well as that of livestock epigenetics. It will present evidence of the epigenetic sources of phenotypic variation in livestock traits, the role of epigenetic marks in production and reproduction, and potential impact on livestock genetics and breeding.

[Adrienne]

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0240787

 

Link to articles on Epigenetics in Dog breeding

[coneye]

3 hours ago, persephone said:

Epigenetics is the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work. Unlike genetic changes, epigenetic changes are reversible and do not change your DNA sequence, but they can change how your body reads a DNA sequence.

So really just another load of crap  put out by people sprouting crap ,, On a cold winteres night ,  a man and wife go to bed and both are cold and the lady says , come closer , put your arm around me  . lets keep warm ,  , Then summer arrives and the man comes closer  puts his arm around her and gets told , Bugger off  your hot , get over there ,  guess thats  EPIGENETICS

[Diva]

I don’t think epigenetics is crap, but I do find it complicated and hard to get my head around. A lot of what I have read was based on studies of the effects of the Dutch famine at the end of WW2, specifically the effect of the exposure of babies in utero to famine. The multigenerational effects in particular are interesting to me  - if  a grandparent was exposed to famine while a foetus, the grandchildren are reported to have higher obesity levels (and therefore poorer chronic disease outcomes) than the normal population. Is that an environmentally induced change in how their genes work to ensure that the kids can survive in a low nutrient environment like that their grandparents experienced at a formative stage of development, which is what is postulated? Or is it a multigenerational change in attitudes to food in that family? Or something else? I don’t know but the idea that the early nutrition of a grandparent can affect the health of a grandchild is a bit mind blowing to me. 

[Adrienne]

1 hour ago, coneye said:

4 hours ago, persephone said:

Epigenetics is the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work. Unlike genetic changes, epigenetic changes are reversible and do not change your DNA sequence, but they can change how your body reads a DNA sequence.

So really just another load of crap  put out by people sprouting crap ,, On a cold winteres night ,  a man and wife go to bed and both are cold and the lady says , come closer , put your arm around me  . lets keep warm ,  , Then summer arrives and the man comes closer  puts his arm around her and gets told , Bugger off  your hot , get over there ,  guess thats  EPIGENETICS

Er, NO. 

[sandgrubber]

3 hours ago, Adrienne said:

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0240787

 

Link to articles on Epigenetics in Dog breeding

Fascinating,  but a long way from providing practical advice.

 

Watching my untrained ESSs go nuts around wild pheasants and quail and doing a fine job flushing them, I can believe something quite specific has been programmed into land races.   Likewise herding dogs with sheepies.  But there a long way from knowing how to get a kelpie to have a soft mouth or a Springer to herd sheep.

Edited May 2, 2023 by sandgrubber

[Mairead]

A simple example: 

The BRCA1 and BRCA 2 are important for repairing damaged DNA and so prevent the formation of cancers. Mutations of these genes mean they don't work properly. However, not everyone who inherits a mutation will get breast or ovarian cancer. About 30% of women [men not mentioned] with a mutation get breast or ovarian cancer by age 70, compared with fewer than 1% of general US population.

Reference: https://www.CDC.gov

You can also search this site "epigenetics" for not so technical articles.

So, something else is affecting how the genes are expressed. That is epigenetics.

 

Edited May 2, 2023 by Mairead