Likewise, the genome certainly dictates what the epigenome can do. A caterpillar can’t become a human being, but it can become a butterfly by virtue of changes in epigenetic expression that occur during metamorphosis, even though its genome never changes. Similarly, the child of two parents from a long line of people with black hair and brown eyes isn’t likely to develop blond hair and blue eyes, but twin agouti mice in the lab can turn out brown or golden, depending on how much the Agouti gene is turned on during gestation by environmental influences on the epigenome, such as folic acid,
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Epigenome is malleable to a degree
