The Weismannian notion that the germ cells are unaffected by somatic cells or their environment is however proving not to be absolute. Chemical modification of the nucleotide bases that constitute the genetic code such as methylation of cytosines as well as modifications of the histones around which DNA is organized into higher-order structures are influenced by the metabolic and physiologic state of the organism and in some cases can be heritable. Such changes are called epigenetic because they do not alter the nucleotide sequence.[9]