Gen turn on, turn off depending on geography and lifestyle

Scoring in the argument between one side is natural, on the one hand is nurturing, geneticists at North Carolina University have demonstrated that environmental factors such as lifestyle and geography play a big role in The administration of turning on or off certain genes.

Studying the level of gene response in white blood cells of 46 Moroccan Amazighs (Berbers) including desert nomads, mountain growers and residents of coastal cities, scientists see that up to one third of genes are expressed differently depending on the location and mode of life of the Moroccan Amazighs.

North Carolina State researchers - Youssef Idaghdour, North Carolina graduate student in genetics and a Fulbright scholar, Dr. Greg Gibson was formerly a professor of genetics at William Neal Reynolds in North Carolina. A member of the University of Queensland in Australia - conducted a study on the impact of the transition of a traditional living environment to the urban lifestyle of the human immune system.

They used the most advanced tools to analyze gene sequences as well as the level of expression of all 23,000 genes in the human genome to compare three Moroccan Amazigh groups together. They chose this group because they had a similar genetic inheritance but differentiated their lifestyle and resided in geographic territories. Therefore, the difference in the level of gene response between these three groups may be derived from habitat rather than genetic factors.

Studying the level of gene response in white blood cells of 46 Moroccan Amazighs (Berbers) including desert nomads, mountain growers and residents of coastal cities, scientists see that up to one third of genes are expressed differently depending on the location and mode of life of the Moroccan Amazighs.(Photo: Image courtesy of North Carolina State University)

The team found specific genes and pathways of lifestyle and geographic factors . For example, respiratory-related genes are started more often in urban people than mountain or nomadic cultivators.

Idaghdour says this makes sense because urban residents face higher levels of pollution, more susceptible to diseases such as asthma or bronchitis. That is why certain respiratory genes in urban dwellers are more active while lying quietly in the genome of nomads and rural people.

North Carolina State researchers also studied each gene in three population groups and found very little genetic differences between them. Thus, this limited difference cannot explain the major differences in gene expression.

Although Idaghdour initially hypothesized that environmental factors play a role in gene expression, he never thought of such big differences. About 30% of genes show differences between urban residents and mountainous people.

Idaghdour said: 'The most important significance of this study is that people with the same genetic makeup can live in different environments and may have different expressions. The same gene will be able to work in a city environment but not in a rural environment because of environmental factors. Therefore we need to learn about the environment when studying the relationship between genes and diseases'.

The article 'Signs of gene expression in geographic environments in white blood cells of Moroccan Amazighs' by authors Youssef Idaghdour and Greg Gibson (North Carolina); John D. Storey (Princeton University), and Sami J. Jadallah (HRH Prince Sultan International Wildlife Conservation and Development Fund, April 11, 2008) were published on PloS Genetics.