In epigenetics, a paramutation is an interaction between two alleles at a single locus, whereby one allele induces a heritable change in the other allele. The change may be in the pattern of DNA methylation, for example. The allele inducing the change is said to be paramutagenic, whilst the allele that has been epigenetically altered is termed paramutant (or paramutated). This change is meiotically inheritable, and therefore paramutation violates Mendel’s first law.