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SINK: Young rats that were nurtured more attentively by their mothers had brain cells that were less methylated. When the mother grooms its child, the GR gene is turned on because the DNA opens up. Therefore, the GR gene is not restricted by the methyl groups. This is an example of epigenentics because the mother's nurturing helps the rat later in life. Psychologically, highly nurtured adult rats have a better flight or fight response because the GR genes in the hippocampus allow for the binding of cortisol, which allows the rats to get less stressed more quickly. Low nurtered rats have less activation of GR genes.

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SINK: Unlike humans, in some organisms, like rats, anxiety may be considered beneficial. Anxiety is beneficial in the dangerous environment a rat may live.

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SINK: Environmental factors can affect epigenetic code, ultimately changing an organism's mental state and behavior.

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a takeaway- theres more than one type of inheritnace. other than genetic inheritance there is also behavioral inheritance to were you will have a similar disposition to your parents.

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Takeaway:
The genes are affected by the epigenome. The epigenome responds to outside factor, for example, the mother's nurturing relaxes GR gene. GR gene will be like this for the rest of the rat's life, which shows that they are highly influential as rat pups.

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Connection: Although the same GR gene is not present in humans, this concept can be explored in humans. Children who are abused or children in foster homes tend to have higher anxiety levels due to a lack of attention and nurturing given by their caretakers.

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A Takeaway:

Much of an organism's behavioral patterns can be determined by actions taken in earlier stages of life-- the chemicals that their brain produces can have lifelong effects that can either be beneficial or detrimental to their survival. Something as simple as the attentive behavior of a mother can change so much about the behavior of the individual.

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Something that I never knew: Drugs can replicate the effects of behavior and nurturing in early life because there are epigenetic changes caused by that behavior that can be substituted with chemicals that remove methyl groups from DNA.

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A Takeaway:
Gene expression patterns set up early in life can turn into epigenetic patterns. This can be seen with the rats who are well nurtured compared to the rats who are ignored either developing calm versus anxious behavior. Gene expression patterns set up in early life however are not necessarily permanent. Patterns can be reversed through the removal of methyl groups causing the genes for being anxious to become coded. This relates to what we learned in class since the removal of methyl tags causes the histones to unravel making it easier to code the genetic information for anxiousness in rats.

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Takeaway/Class Connections: The example of licking rats is evidence of the fact that genes can be "changed" as a result of the environment. Rats are born with the GR gene, which is used to calm anxiety, however, due to an increase in amount of methyl groups, these genes are not transcribed, resulting in anxious rats. When mothers nurture their young, it releases brain chemicals that reduce the amount of methyl near the histones in their young. As a result, the GR gene is transcribed, and the young are more calm, evidently proving that the environment (epigenetic influences), while unable to change gene structure, is able to have an impact on expression.

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Connection:
We learned that a mom's behavior (licking the pups) actually programs the pup's DNA in a way that will make them more likely to succeed. This connects to AP Psychology because a similar phenomenon is found within humans who have secure attachment to their mothers versus humans with insecure attachment.

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Something I Never Knew:
"Through her licking behavior, a mother rat can write information onto her pups' DNA in a way that completely bypasses eggs and sperm." A caring and nurturing mother makes the baby rat develop into a less anxious adult rat. So cool!!!!!!

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SINK: While I knew the affection a mother gives to a child affects their disposition when they get older, I didn't know that it affects the epigenome. A mouse licking her pup will allow the pup to grow up less anxious.

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SINK: The way rats respond to their parents behavior is similar to humans, where a naturally anxious parent encourages offspring to also have anxious tendencies.

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SINK:
Through her licking behavior, a mother rat can write information onto her babies' DNA that completely bypasses eggs and sperm. Mom's behavior programs the DNA in a way that will make them more likely to succeed in their lives.

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SINK: Anxious rats can have certain advantages in wild environments since they always have their guards up.

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Connection: Surroundings can impact our epigenome. In the example, low nuturing mothers produced low nutured offspring, while highly nuturing mothers produced nutured, less-anxious offspring.

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The Takeaway - Experiences that organisms go through in the early stages of their life can influence their actions and personalities as adults, as the rats had a more active GR gene as a result of the mom's licking.

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SINK - Epigenetic patterns can be reversed by injecting methyl tags or drugs that remove methyl groups into rats.

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SINK- It's surprising how the way the mother rat raises a rat can change the behavior of it. Apparently, licking a rat can change the gene expression of of a rat.