Objective of epigenetics: Study of gene expression patterns (and the associated phenotype) stable and inheritable, dependent on the structure of chromatin and independent of changes in the DNA sequence.
The word epigenetics comes from the ancient Greek epi-mas, above, besides, exterior a- and genetic-genitiu- or genesis-origin-.
While genetics is the science of genes, the inheritance and diversity of living organisms based on variations in the nucleotide sequence of DNA (the material basis of genes), epigenetics is the study of inheritable changes in patterns of expression of the genes - and of the cellular phenotypes associated with these expression patterns - caused by mechanisms that do not imply variations in the nucleotide sequence in the DNA.
Examples of epigenetic mechanisms are DNA methylation and the modification of histones, nucleosomes, which can be maintained through cell divisions throughout the life of an organism and can even last several generations.
An example of an epigenetic phenomenon is the process of cellular differentiation during embryonic development: from a zygote, first totipotent stem cells originate, which then differentiate into the different pluripotent cell lines of the embryo, which in turn will become the different cells completely differentiated in the adult organism.
Multiple environmental factors, such as the nutrition of the mother, can affect the development of the embryo and the adult organism through epigenetic mechanisms.
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