GENE AFFECTS ALCOHOL 'HIGH'
British researchers find the amount of beer, wine and other alcoholic drinks that people regularly consume may be related to differences in genetic make-up. "Our study suggests that there's a genetic basis to certain kinds of behavior, including alcohol consumption," says lead researcher Dr. Marcus Munafo at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol in Bristol, England. The Bristol researchers, along with colleagues from the University of Oxford, found one particular genetic variant -- DRD2 -- appears to influence the "high" people derive from drugs such as alcohol. People without this variant might derive less pleasure from alcohol, and may therefore drink less, according to the findings published in the Pharmacogenomics Journal.
SINGLE GENE PRODUCES CHANGE IN FISH
Scientists have found changes in a single gene can produce major changes in the skeletal armor of stickleback fish living in the wild. The surprising results, announced in the journal Science, bring new data to long-standing debates about how evolution occurs in natural habitats. "People have been interested in whether a few genes are involved, or whether changes in many different genes are required to produce major changes in wild populations," says molecular geneticist David M. Kingsley at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Kingsley and colleagues used the fish's armor plating as a marker. Sticklebacks living in the ocean are virtually covered, from head to tail, with bony plates that offer protection, while freshwater sticklebacks evolved to almost no body armor. The researchers found one gene made the difference.
BACTERIUM IN GUT KEY TO INTESTINAL HEALTH
A bacterium in the gut shifts 25 percent of its genes into high gear when its host's diet changes from sugar to complex carbohydrates, a U.S. study found. "Bacterial cells in the human gut number close to 100 trillion," says Dr. Jeffrey Gordon, director of the Center for Genome Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "Together, these microbes can be viewed as a 'microbial organ' that lives within the intestine and harvests, stores and redistributes energy from the diet." The bacterium, Bacteriodes thetaiotaomicron or B. theta, breaks down otherwise indigestible carbohydrates, such as dietary fiber, and supplies its human host with nutrients while obtaining food for itself and other gut bacterial species. This adaptive mechanism not only allows the bacterial species to survive rapidly changing nutrient conditions but also helps maintain the functions and stability of the gut's highly complex microbial society, according to the study published in Science.
THREE GENES DISTINGUISH THYROID CANCER
Ohio State University researchers say they can distinguish between a type of thyroid cancer and an identical non-cancerous condition by three genes. The findings, published in Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, could lead to a test that would prevent the needless loss of the thyroid gland in people with the non-cancerous condition. Principal investigator Charis Eng, director of OSU's clinical cancer genetics program, along with colleagues from the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, found the activity levels of three genes -- cyclin D2, PCSK2 and PLAB -- might distinguish the non-cancerous condition known as follicular adenoma, or FA, from follicular thyroid cancer or FTC. "Presently, doctors cannot distinguish between these two conditions without surgical removal of the thyroid, even though only about 10 percent of cases prove to be cancerous," Eng says.
GENETIC PATHWAYS ESSENTIAL TO RNA INTERFERENCE
Massachusetts General Hospital researchers have identified 80 new genes essential to the process of RNA interference or RNAi. Study author Gary Ruvkun, also a professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, used the RNAi process itself to find new genes that participate in the gene-silencing mechanism, which someday may help to fight human disease. "The gene activation produced by RNAi is exquisitely specific, which gives it enormous potential for therapeutic application," says Ruvkun in the journal Science. "Imagine short, double-stranded RNA molecules that could be synthesized quickly and inexpensively to silence a single gene -- promising targets could include viruses like HIV and hepatitis C or cancer-causing oncogenes."
GENOMIC ANALYSIS TO BE TOOL FOR TRAUMA PATIENTS
Genomic analysis may one day be a primary diagnostic tool for U.S. physicians deciding on a course of treatment for trauma and other critically ill patients. The study, conducted by Dr. J. Perren Cobb of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and colleagues applied genomic analysis technology to blood samples and skeletal muscle from 34 severely injured patients and 23 healthy individuals. The scientists identified key aspects of microarray testing procedures that were vital to obtaining results that could be reproduced to establish protocols to move closer to being able to enroll large numbers of patients in longitudinal studies. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
LIBRARY USED TO HELP MAP X CHROMOSOME
The DNA library at Children's Hospital & Research Center at Oakland, Calif., was used to duplicate strands of DNA for an international team mapping the X chromosome. The landmark study, published in Nature, says the human X chromosome is the most important chromosome for scientists to understand because the X chromosome is linked to more than 300 diseases -- by far the highest proportion of any chromosome. "Our DNA library has become a major resource for ongoing global research in the genetics of human diseases," said Pieter de Jong, director of the DNA library. "One of the research projects that our scientists will be using the DNA library for is to investigate the genetic differences that make certain people susceptible to inherited forms of Lou Gehrig's Disease."
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(EDITORS for more information on ALCOHOL contact the Office of Public Affairs 44 (0)117 928 9000. For FISH, Jim Keeley at 301-215-8858 or [email protected]. For BACTERIUM, Gwen Ericson 314-286-0141 or [email protected]. For THYROID, Darrell E. Ward at 614-293-3737, or [email protected] RNA, Sue McGreevey at 617-724-2764 or [email protected]. For ANALYSIS, Michael C. Purdy at 314-286-0122 or [email protected]. For X CHROMOSOME, Diana Yee at 510-428-3120 or [email protected].)
