Our genes can be affected by the environment and change the way our traits are displayed, called the phenotype. However, changes in phenotype have an underlying genotypic source. Epigenetics or epigenetic changes are changes in the way traits are expressed as an effect of the environment (i.e. food we ate, chemicals in the body, environmental stresses), without changes in the DNA. Simply put, in epigenetics, some parts of the DNA are turned on or off in response to environmental conditions.
To achieve this the solution in which the liposome is dropped must be hypertonic. In a <span>hypertonic solution,</span><span> there are more salts than in the cell or, in this case, a liposome. When we put cell or liposome in the hypertonic solution, there is more water inside than outside. The aim is to balance water concentration on the inside and outside of cell or liposome. So, the water will exit the cell and consequently it will shrink in size.
If we want the extracellular solution to be hypertonic, it must have more salts than the liposome. The concentration of NaCl must be higher than 200mM. If in liposome there are 200 mM of NaCl, in order to shrink, on the outside there must be twice that concentration <u>(400 mM)</u>. So, all the water bound to the internal NaCl will exit the liposome and bind to the external NaCl.</span>