Monthly Archives: September 2018

Gene discovery and polygenic prediction (from genome-wide association study; GWAS) of educational attainment

Posted on September 30, 2018 by DWN

These GEITP pages have previously described innumerable genotype-phenotype association studies, which have become more powerful during the last decade due to whole-genome association studies (GWAS) often involving hundreds of thousands of individuals in the cohort –– and the larger numbers … Continue reading →

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If you live on a small island long enough (sufficient number of generations), your progeny will start getting smaller

Posted on September 29, 2018 by DWN

This topic represents a fascinating “gene-environment interactions” (long-term) effect. Living on a small island can elicit strange effects. For example, on Cyprus, the hippopotamus, over time, declined to the size of a sea lion. On Flores in Indonesia, extinct elephants … Continue reading →

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Gene editing could eliminate mosquitos, but is it a good idea?

Posted on September 26, 2018 by DWN

We just covered this topic (amply) on GEITP exchange of emails last week –– and here it is, again, this time on CNN News. The article does cover the fact that scientists are considering ablation of ONE species, among more … Continue reading →

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Recent geological ages named / defined

Posted on September 25, 2018 by DWN

This topic is a bit tangential to gene-environment interactions. However, it must be kept in mind that climatic periods have always had an important impact on the genome of Homo sapiens during the multiple human migrations “Out of Africa” (i.e. … Continue reading →

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Was this ‘the hottest summer’ ever? Not even close

Posted on September 19, 2018 by DWN

CFACT (Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow) is a national, student-based nonprofit that believes in promoting prosperity, protecting liberty, and enjoying nature. Free markets, private property rights, and environmental stewardship are the keys to a prosperous society and constructive tomorrow for … Continue reading →

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At least eight separate evolutionary events gave rise to jellyfish eyes !!!

Posted on September 16, 2018 by DWN

During early evolution, as the animal-fungus ancestor diverged from the plant ancestor and then animals split off from fungi –– an obvious survival advantage would be to be able to “sense” one’s environment, i.e. any species able to see food, … Continue reading →

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New method now enables scientists to study gene expression in single cells (“RNA velocity”)

Posted on September 13, 2018 by DWN

When scientists (typically) determine “liver gene transcription, mRNA or protein level, or enzyme activity” –– the entire organ is homogenized and analyzed. Same with lung, kidney, brain, mammary or prostate gland, etc. However, each of these organs comprises multiple cell-types, … Continue reading →

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Bacterial death and population dynamics affect mutation-rate estimates and evolvability — in response to ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS

Posted on September 10, 2018 by DWN

The topic today is directly central to “gene-environment interactions.” Three decades ago, experiments in the lab of John Cairns showed that the effect of “environmental stress” on the mutation rate in bacteria can be remarkably strong (the “stress” they used … Continue reading →

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Only certain histone posttranslatinal modifications appear to qualify as “having an epigenetic effect” ???

Posted on September 8, 2018 by DWN

As often covered in these GEITP pages, multifactorial traits (e.g. phenotypes such as type-2 diabetes, drug efficacy, many dose-independent adverse drug reactions, autism spectrum disorder, cancer) represent the contributions of: [a] genetic predisposition (genotype; DNA-sequence changes); [b] epigenetic effects; [c] … Continue reading →

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Dual-spindle formation keeps the two parental genomes apart in 1-cell mammalian embryo

Posted on September 6, 2018 by DWN

Mammalian life begins with fertilization of the egg. Once the egg and sperm have fused, the parental chromosomes need to be combined. It was previously taught that a single microtubule-spindle is responsible for spatially combining the two genomes, and then … Continue reading →

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