A team of Japanese scientists recently announced that they had successfully implanted a gene into marmosets that made their skin, hair roots and blood glow green under ultraviolet light.

The scientists implanted a jellyfish gene that leads to the creation of a green fluorescent protein into marmoset embryos. When the baby marmosets were born, four of the five that had been implanted carried the gene. Most significantly, one of those eventually fathered a healthy baby that also carried the green fluorescent gene.

Why, you may wonder, would scientists want to make a glowing green monkey? What possible scientific benefit could that provide?

According to the Reuters/Yahoo News article, this is a potentially huge development in genetic research, with special potential for the medical field. It is the first time that a transgene (a gene from another type of organism) has been successfully passed to the offspring of an implanted animal.

“The birth of this transgenic marmoset baby is undoubtedly a milestone,” stem cell expert Dr. Gerald Schatten, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and Shoukhrat Mitalipov, of Oregon Health and Sciences University, wrote in a commentary in Nature.

“Transgenic marmosets are potentially useful models for research into infectious diseases, immunology and neurological disorders, for example,” they wrote.

The scientists who successfully implanted the gene are focused on using this new information in research on currently incurable diseases such as Parkinsons disease. See the original article here.

This is just another example of the high degree of commonality in the genes of all living things, and especially between humans and primates. It’s also a great illustration of epigenetics - non-DNA memory in genes plays such an important role in how genetic information is expressed or passed along to offspring.

Scientific research confirming and clarifying the importance of epigenetics in biology - specifically, the passing on of traits to offspring - just keeps coming. A recent study published in The Quarterly Review of Biology (University of Chicago) highlighted over 100 examples of specific animal traits passed to offspring via non-DNA inheritance.

A Current.com post includes selected examples from the study, as well as commentary on the conclusions. Here are a few examples:

Fruit flies exposed to certain chemicals transmit changes—bristly outgrowths on their eyes—down at least 13 generations.

Exposing a pregnant rat to a chemical that alters reproductive hormones leads to generations of sick offspring.

People malnourished in adolescence transmit higher rates of heart disease and diabetes to their children and grandchildren.

In these and 97 other cases the changes in subsequent generations were not from changes in DNA but from epigenetics.

According to the Current.com post, the biggest implication of this new research is that “All the stuff we’re synthesizing and creating from plastics to nanomaterials is going to live in our bodies and take its toll down the generations for a long, long time.”

The “glass-half-full’ flipside to this opinion is epigenetic nutrition: we can identify nutrients and specific foods, used by our ancestors, that meet the needs of our present-day bodies.

Results of a ten-year genetic study of Africans was published in the April 30 issue of Science Express. The research team studied DNA from 121 populations of Africans and 60 non-African populations (more than four million genotypes). They discovered that Africans are decended from 14 ancsestral populations. The scientists also revealed that there is more genetic diversity in Africa than anywhere else on the planet.

According to the study (this also squares with the work of Spencer Wells in the Genographic project), the ancestral origin of humans was most likely located in southern Africa, near the South African-Namibian broder.

This study is greater verification that humanity comes from one central location and that our genes evolved throughout our migratory journey - creating different cultures. Although we all look different, our DNA is 99.9% the same as it was during the Paleolithic/hunter-gatherer period. Because our genes have not evolved to thrive on our modern diet, this is the reason why it is so important that our nutrition comes directly from the soils of our ancestors’ migratory paths.

Epigenetic Nutrition is ancestral sourced whole food nutrients selected through a study of the non-DNA memory or shadow memory in your genes.

Significant advancements have been made in the field of genetic genealogy. Scientific studies now show that there is much more to our genetic makeup than just our DNA. Our DNA or genes are only part of the equation. Human DNA is 99.9% the same. What makes us different – have different color eyes and hair, different heights, etc. – is the memory in our genes (epigenetics).

Think of it this way – your genes are like soldiers – they will do whatever the general instructs them to do. Your epigenome is like the general spouting off orders to your gene soldiers. Your epigenome determines if a cell becomes a heart cell, brain cell or a skin cell. It provides constant instruction to your genes.

The core of genetic health is to ensure your genes are expressing themselves ‘healthily.’ Cancer, for example, is your DNA expressing itself in a harmful way.

A large part of keeping your genes healthy and your body functioning properly is good nutrition. Your DNA ancestry may play a big role in determining which nutrients your epigenetics with respond positively to. Through genetic genealogy, anthropology and archeology, scientists are now able to determine what your hunter-gatherer ancestors ate tens of thousands of years ago.

Because our bodies evolve so slowly, our DNA is almost exactly the same as it was during hunter-gatherer times. Many scientists agree that our genes have not evolved to consume a diet of processed foods, grains, or milk (this is often referred to as the Paleolithic Diet or the Caveman Diet). The ideal diet to keep us healthy and reduce the likelihood of disease is that of our early Paleolithic ancestors. But these diets don’t take into account that ‘caveman food’ isn’t readily available.

To learn how to access ‘caveman nutrition,’ download your free genetic health report: “Epigenetic Nutrition: Attaining Good Health through Ancestral Sourced Whole Foods”

The main purpose of this blog is to update you about EpiGaia and the world of epigenetic nutrition, genetic health and DNA ancestry.

We have spent the last three years creating a nutrient formula based on the study of genetic genealogy, anthropology, biology and archeology. We believe it is the most optimal nutrition available today. If you are interested in learning more about EpiGaia, the first step is to download the Free Report.

You can also follow us on Twitter and join our FaceBook page.

Thanks for reading this post and we look forward to communicating advancements in the field of Epigenetic Nutrition.