The transmission of information important for gene regulation from parent to daughter cell, without altering the actual nucleotide sequence, is called inheritance. this type of inheritance is seen with the inheritance of the covalent modifications on proteins bound to dna; these modifications are important for reestablishing the pattern of chromatin structure found on the parent chromosome. another way to inherit chromatin structure involves dna , a covalent modification that occurs on cytosine bases that typically turns off the transcription of a gene. gene transcription patterns can also be transmitted across generations through positive loops that can involve a transcription regulator activating its own transcription in addition to other genes. these mechanisms all allow for cell , a property involving the maintenance of gene expression patterns important for cell identity.