simplified definition of epigenetic inheritance
Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance is the transmission of information from one generation of an organism to the next (i.e., parentâchild transmission) that affects the traits of offspring without alteration of the primary structure of DNA (i.e., the sequence of nucleotides) âin other words, epigenetically.
Epigenetics involves the study of regulatory systems that enable heritable changes in gene expression within genotypically identical cells. This includes chemical modifications to DNA and the associated histone proteins, as well as changes in DNA accessibility and chromatin conformation [1].