epigenetics

Term: epigenetic

Origin: Anc Greek

επί/epi(=upon, over, above )

γενετικός/genetikos (=genitive) > γενεά/ genea(=generation)

> γεννώ/geno (=birth to)

> γένεσις/genesis(=origin) 

Coined:

In 1905 British geneticist, Wiliam Bateson coined the term of genetics as the term relating to Heredity and Variation of organisms. Three decades later (1242) biologist, geneticist, and philosopher Conrad Hal Waddington (1905-1975) defined “epigenetics” as “the branch of biology which studies the causal interactions between genes and their products, which bring the phenotype into being”.  The conceptual origins of the term date back to Aristotle (384-322 BC) who  believed in the development of individual organic form from the unformed and not from smaller ‘fully formed’ organisms as it was believed.

Definition:

Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in genome function (phenotype)  that occur without a change in DNA sequence.