Editorial

摘要

Human Molecular Genetics is normally filled mostly with articles that relate changes in DNA sequence with disease pathologies. However, there has always been an appreciation in the journal that the regulation of gene expression and changes in chromatin structure also underpin normal human development and that perturbations of'these can lead to disease.The heritable changes in chromatin structure and gene expression that can be passed from one cell to its daughter cells fall under the umbrella term of 'epigenetics'. Because DNA sequence alone does not describe our genetic information, a natural extension of the complete sequencing of the human genome is to ask whether we can also describe the 'epigenome', or more correctly the 'epigenomes', that even within one individual will vary between one somatic cell type and another and between normal and abnormal (e.g. cancer) cells. Therefore, it seems fitting that this special review issue on epigenetics should begin with a discussion of how the epigenome may be revealed and present an update on current progress.