Holistic Health from an Evolutionary Viewpoint
It is becoming more and more clear that the living cell via its genome is aware of and senses its environment and adjusts(adapts) to it. The environment, on its own part, affects the genes directly through mutations or indirectly, by modifying their expression, epigenetically in a physical or steric alteration of the heterochromatin and euchromatin, and with the introduction of chemical tags on genes through, for example, DNA methylation and acetylation. The genome senses itself through its sensing genes and their proteins, and makes the necessary adjustments to sustain life, by correcting damage done or adopting new 'lifestyle' if damage is permanent but not lethal. Genes exposed to the outer environment are not expressed because of the influence of inhibitory factors from without, while the inner ones, shielded from such influences, are expressed. These sensors equally determine species body architecture. The master gene which determines the body plan binds many transcrip...