Highlights of our Work The genes of organisms, like plants and
animals, offer the blueprint, not only to build the organism
anew from a seed or fertilized egg cell, but also to adapt the
living organism to its habitat and life experience. For example,
a type of tree growing in an arid or wet region will adapt
expression of its genes for root growth optimal to
circumstances. A child living on a scarce or abundant diet or
with little or much physical activity will adapt body growth
accordingly. The needed, life time adaptation requires an
individual's change in gene expression. This change is the
subject of epigenetics. One control element in epigenetics is
that cytosine bases of an organism's DNA become methylated in a
chemical reaction in which a hydrogen atom is replaced by a
methyl group (CH3). Another control element involves
hydroxymethylation of cytosine bases where the H atom is
replaced by a hydroxymethyl group (CH2OH); hydroxymethylation
arises mainly in brain tissue. DNA methylation and hydroxymethyl