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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Reprod Toxicol. 2010 Nov 3;31(3):337–343. doi: 10.1016/j.reprotox.2010.10.012

Table 1.

Environmental Epigenetics Terminology

Term Definition
Environmental Actions on Somatic Cells Allows tissue specific toxicology and critical for adult onset disease in the individual exposed, but not capable of transmitting a transgenerational phenotype.
Environmental Actions on Germ Cells Allows transmission between generations and in the absence of direct exposure promotes a transgenerational phenotype.
Multigenerational Phenotypes Coincident direct exposure of multiple generations to an environmental factor or toxicant promoting a toxicology in the multiple generations exposed.
Transgenerational Phenotypes After the initial exposure, the transgenerational phenotype is transmitted through the germ line in the absence of direct exposure.
Epigenetics Molecular factors and processes around the DNA that regulate genome activity that are independent of DNA sequence and are mitotically stable.