表观遗传学在法医学中的应用研究进展

摘要

表观遗传学指DNA 序列无变化的、可遗传的基因表达改变。主要包括： DNA 甲基化、基因组印记、X 染色体失活以及非编码RNA 调控等方面。随着研究的不断深入，表观遗传学为解决法医学领域中的一些问题提供了新思路，如单亲鉴定中亲代必需等位基因的确定、妊娠期胎儿父权的认定、组织来源确定、同卵双生子的区分、个体年龄推断等。主要介绍表观遗传学的主要研究进展，并就法医学应用领域表观遗传学的研究进展进行综述。%Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression other than the changes in the underlying DNA sequence. Such changes include DNA methylation,genomic imprinting,X chromosome inactivation and non-coding RNA regulation. Recent progresses on epigenetics offer new ideas to tackling these problems in forensic science,including determination of the necessary allele in paternity,identification of fetal paternity testing in embryonic period,discrimination of identical twins,origination analysis of tissue,and individual age estimation. This review focuses on the main concept of epigenetics and its application in the field of forensic science.