Genetic expression confirmed by gene type

The difference in human strains may be due to the same genome but varying differently.

From dark skin to red hair, all human strains on earth have typical natural traits. But how can our genome be encoded to make this difference? A recent study showed that not only because different races carry different genes, some changes are due to the same genome but are expressed differently.

(Photo: ens-lyon.fr) The study is the latest contribution to the popular field of using modern gene coding tools to elucidate the genetic basis of variations between races. And such analytical results are only recent due to the support of tools such as international schemes on the list of common genetic variants in the human body (published last year). It outlines the different spreads of single DNA letters, also known as single-gene diversity or SNPs, among different strains.

The work marked genetic differences between strains, such as some genes used to determine skin color and eye color that were not selected. However, scientists often only study a specific feature, and we can only find genetic explanations after years of elaborate research.

Richard Spielman, Vivian Cheung and their team at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia conducted a quicker method of testing thousands of typical traits at the same time and continuing to study them back to their genetic roots. in just a few months.

Express yourself

The team selected a set of 4,197 genes expressed by a single cell sequence. They then measured the extent to which each gene works in this cell type in three racial groups: white, Chinese and Japanese. They found out that the Chinese and Japanese strains had similar results. When they were combined and combined with the third strain, they discovered 1,097 genes (10% of the total) showing a difference between Asians and Caucasians (Europeans).

Spielman said the results (published in Nature Genetics) are remarkable, and surprising.

He also notes that studying different strains, genes or cell types can produce different results. So this does not mean, for example, that whites are 25% different than Chinese people. There are many other genetic variants that also help distinguish individuals and races including the addition or removal of micro-letters of DNA.

But if adding to the recognition of the differences in gene expression will help researchers solve the problem of why some races are more resistant to disease than other races. For example, cystic fibrosis affects disproportionately to Caucasians, and Tay-Sachs disease (a genetic disease of lipid disorders in the brain) tends to be common to Ashkenazi Jews, French-Canadian Jews and one number of other strains.

Spieldman specifically told him these studies could bring about medical differences.

Control behavior

The difference in gene expression may be due to the slightly different DNA: and what is called the regulatory part of DNA can control the behavior of nearby genes.

Anh Phuong