article_snippet.sent: Pandey Pandey explained that epigenetic changes are chemical modifications of DNA, or of the proteins around which DNA is wound, like thread on a spool.
article_snippet.sent: Modification of these proteins, which are called histones, can change how loosely or tightly DNA is wound.
article_snippet.sent: Genes that lie within DNA that is tightly wrapped around the histones are less active than if the DNA is loosely wrapped.
article_snippet.sent: The looser the DNA is coiled, the more accessible Genes that lie within DNA that is tightly wrapped around the histones are to the cellular machinery that 'expresses' Genes that lie within DNA that is tightly wrapped around the histones.
article_snippet.sent: These epigenetic changes were linked to lowered expression of a gene that nerve cells need in order to form new connections between cells, known as synaptic connections.
article_snippet.sent: Professor Pandey argued the lowered activity of this gene may be due to the tighter winding of this gene DNA.
highlights_snippet.sent: The changes mean connections do not form as normal between the cells .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: This alters the way genes are expressed and changes behaviour .
  