Reverend AtheiStar Posted November 26, 2006 Share Posted November 26, 2006 http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061123_variation.htm We’re more genetically diverse than thought: study Nov. 23, 2006 Special to World Science New research has found that at least 10 percent of genes in the human population can vary in the number of copies of certain DNA sequences. The findings undermine a popular view that the DNA of any two humans is 99.9 percent alike, researchers said. That idea is widespread; scientists still sometimes cite it as evidence that there are no significant differences among races, although recent research has cast doubt on both notions. The new findings, from geneticist Stephen W. Scherer of the University of Toronto and its affiliated Hospital for Sick Children, could also reshape thinking on genetic diseases and evolution, scientists say. Genes usually occur in two copies, one inherited from each parent. Scherer and colleagues found some 2,900 genes—more than 10 percent of those in the genome—with variations in the number of copies of specific DNA segments. These differences can affect gene activity and biological functions, the group said. To understand the implications for human evolution and disease, Scherer’s team compared DNA from 270 people of Asian, African, or European ancestry. The investigators mapped the number of duplicated or deleted genes, which they call copy number variations. They reported the findings in the Nov. 23 issue of the research journal Nature. The researchers searched for the variations using microarrays, a genome scanning technology that can find changes at least 1,000 nucleotides, or “letters” of genetic code, in length. They found an average of 70 of these regions, averaging 250,000 nucleotides long, in each sample. In all, the group identified 1,447 different copy number variations collectively covering about 12 percent of the genome and six to 19 percent of any given chromosome. Not only were the changes common, they also were large, Scherer said. “We’d find missing pieces of DNA, some a million or so nucleotides long,” he added. “We used to think that if you had big changes like this, then they must be involved in disease. But we are showing that we can all have these changes.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pandora Posted November 26, 2006 Share Posted November 26, 2006 Pharmacogenomics is a field that is exploring these differences in the hopes of tailoring drug therapy to individuals with variations in genes that may make some drugs effective for some and not for others. Of course, some label this as racist, but I believe that it will provide more personalized care for those with different genes for diseases. For example, the cause of hypertension African Americans has a different cause than those in whites, and many docs and pharmacologists are exploring the potential for these differences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverend AtheiStar Posted December 1, 2006 Author Share Posted December 1, 2006 Pharmacogenomics is a field that is exploring these differences in the hopes of tailoring drug therapy to individuals with variations in genes that may make some drugs effective for some and not for others. Of course, some label this as racist, but I believe that it will provide more personalized care for those with different genes for diseases. For example, the cause of hypertension African Americans has a different cause than those in whites, and many docs and pharmacologists are exploring the potential for these differences. They'll change their tune when it starts saving lives. It's really hard to have some part of science when it saves your grandmother, or some other loved one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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