Two studies in Nature Genetics, including researchers from UC Davis, have looked at the genetics of brain size, and have linked these with Alzheimer’s disease and brain development.
SNP archive.
Something nice for a Friday. Oxytocin, also known as the cuddle hormone, makes us feel good. It’s released during sex, pair bonding and breastfeeding, and our levels (and the dog’s levels) rise when we stroke our pets. The oxytocin gene may also make us more optimistic. Differences in our responses to oxytocin seem to affect how empathic we are – so if you are a nice person, it might be (at least a little bit) down to your oxytocin gene.
Hints and tips from Nucleic Acids Research: A cross-sample statistical model for SNP detection in short-read sequencing data
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a delayed development disorder, including social, communication and cognitive problems. ASD seems to have strong genetic links – the concordance rate of fraternal to identical twins is 10 to 1 – and is three to four times more common in boys than girls, which suggests a link to the X chromosome. Researchers in the USA have found an X-linked gene that may play a role in ASD risk.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is linked with diet and other lifestyle factors, but there is also an association with SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) variants in genes on chromosome 9, in the 9p21 region. In a paper published in PLoS Medicine, researchers have made a connection between diet and genetic risk, potentially suggesting that changing diet could mitigate the effects of ‘harmful’ gene variants.
Migraines affect 5-25% of women and 2-10% of men. Researchers found a genetic link to migraines in 2010, and have now found a further three gene variants linked to these debilitating headaches.
The Caucasus region covers the borders of Europe and Asia, bordered by Turkey, Iran and Russia. There is a huge diversity of language in this area, with the languages falling into three main groups. A team of researchers at the Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, have looked at the languages in the North Caucasian group and spotted a link with the genetics of the population.
Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, and it can lead to loss of vision and severe pain. Australian researchers have tracked down two new genes linked to one form of the disease, open angle glaucoma.
NordiCDB, the Nordic Control Database, is a collection of genome-wide association study (GWAS) SNP data from 6000 individuals with harmonized genotype information from Denmark, Estonia, Finland and Sweden.
I hadn’t thought about earwax being something that evolved… but researchers in Japan have isolated a nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) that determines ‘wet’ or ‘dry’ earwax in humans.
