Cancer Can Form Without Genetic Mutations, Just Epigenetic Changes
27th April 2024
The roots of cancer run deep. Indeed, they’re usually assumed to run all the way to the blighted bits of DNA we call oncogenic mutations. But what if they don’t have to run quite that deep? What if they needn’t emerge from the genome, but from the epigenome? After all, genomically identical cells that differ epigenomically can mature toward different cell fates. Perhaps some of these fates are cancerous. The possibility seems all the more likely if we consider that many aspects of cancer susceptibility and tumorigenesis have been associated with substantial epigenomic alterations.
This possibility was explored by scientists based at the Institute of Human Genetics, CNRS, University of Montpellier. Using the familiar Drosophila model, the scientists uncovered evidence that tumors can emerge through epigenetic dysregulation leading to inheritance of altered cell fates.
It used to be the Conventional Wisdom that natural selection depended upon random mutations, and since such mutations were few and far between, therefore evolution needed long periods in which to be come apparent. Now, however, we know that environmental factors can cause epigenetic changes, and epigenetic changes can be inherited, so evolution happens faster than most people think–and humans are evolving at a quicker pace than a lot of folks are comfortable with.