SIX decades after their pregnant mothers were starved during the second world war, the genes of Dutch men and women retain chemical changes that may put them at risk of diabetes and cancer.
Our genes are subject to “epigenetic” changes that affect the way we produce proteins. For example, environmental influences can cause changes in the number of chemical “caps” called methyl groups that are added to DNA bases. These help determine how much protein the gene makes.
The caps can last a lifetime, and may even be passed to offspring. In 2006, researchers at University College London and UmeÃ¥…
