…these would be the questions I would like to study:
1) What genes are involved in determining the differences in personalities of identical twins brought up in the same environment? (i.e. what differences in their epigenomes lead to their differences in personality?)
2) What factors from the environment would cause epigenetic changes to an individual? How would these changes effect an individual?
I am more interested in trying to answer question #1.
The phenomenon of having a pair of identical twins yet they are slightly different from each other intrigues me. Specifically, I am curious to see if there are any specific part of the genome that contribute to personality differences. A pair of identical twins have the same exact genome, yet they do have not have the exact same appearance or personality. I am curious in what causes these differences and some of these factors maybe hidden within the epigenomes of each twin.
Through studying identical twins, a researcher maybe able to pinpoint certain parts of the genome that have epigenetic modifications. If they see a pattern in these modifications across many sets of identical twins, perhaps we can understand what causes the differences in personality. From learning about this, we could potentially predict behaviours and personalities based on these regions of the genome and their epigenetic modifications. We could potentially find drug targets to treat people with aggressive behaviours.
Although this seems a little far-fetched, but I believe we currently have the technology to search for these differences. With the better technology, we can find these epigenetic modifications quicker as well as having more powerful computers and better programs to screen for these differences.