Does Stress Change Who We Are?

All living things deal with stress. For you, that might be having a cold in addition to not getting enough sleep. For a plant, it is stressful to live through a drought. It turns out that stress is more than a passing annoyance. It can actually change who we are. Sometimes stress can affect our DNA, the instruction manual for building a living thing. Stress does not rewrite the letters in the DNA instruction manual, but it can change which chapters are used, and which ones are skipped over. Researchers are using corn plants to better understand how different kinds of stress can change how tall the plants grow. Understanding how DNA and the environment work together can not only help us grow bigger, better corn but it can also help us understand other organisms too, including ourselves.