News: Gene-environment interaction in yeast gene expression
- From: "Robert Karl Stonjek" <rstonjek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:46:52 -0400 (EDT)
Gene-environment interaction in yeast gene expression
The nature vs. nurture debate is familiar to most people, and modern
conclusions usually predict a balance between the two. A new paper published
this week in the open-access journal PLoS Biology shows that there is a
similar balance between the genes we inherit nature and the environment
nurture in determining thousands of traits in yeast.
As we approach the age of personal genomics, in which each of us knows
something about the genetic variations we carry, it is important to
understand how genes and the environment interact in order to draw medically
sound conclusions from the information available e.g. whether exercise can
reduce risks that are increased because of a genetic predisposition towards
a certain illness.
The phenomenon of gene/environment interaction has been documented before,
that the environment affects the ways it genes are expressed so that genes
that are on in one condition may be downregulated or switched off in other
environments. What the new research, by Leonid Kruglyak and Erin Smith, of
Princeton University, adds is the ability to study thousands of gene
expression patterns simultaneously, to understand the general properties of
these previously poorly understood interactions.
In this research, the individuals are yeast one from the lab and one from
the vineyard, which differed genetically and the environment varied between
two energy sources: glucose and ethanol. The experiment, then, is to measure
how the genetic and the environmental differences interact to alter the gene
expression of the yeast cells.
The expression of many genes is under the control of other genes. This paper
shows that the environment often has a bigger effect on these regulated
genes than on ones that are switched on and off by other, more direct
mechanisms. Intriguingly, sometimes a control gene that positively affects
another gene in one environment may have the opposite effect in another
environment.
Citation: Smith EN, Kruglyak L (2008) Gene environment interaction in yeast
gene expression. PLoS Biol 6(4): e83. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060083
Source: Public Library of Science
http://www.physorg.com/news127369366.html
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
.
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