Monthly Archives: May 2019

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a VERY complex multifactorial trait in psychiatry — which is known to be “moderately” heritable. Based on identical vs fraternal twin studies, estimates of heritability are ~37%. With multifactorial traits (contributions to any phenotype by … Continue reading →

This topic is an example of gene-environment interactions in which the environment is either “advantageous” or “adverse,” and genes (within each individual cell), especially those controlling cell cycle, respond to these environmental signals by speeding up, or slowing down the … Continue reading →

For anyone who has not heard this incredible news — this is AMAZING….!!!! I had not heard one word about this. We’ll have thousands of low-orbit satellites (apparently in a string? Almost like having a ring around Earth, like Saturn … Continue reading →

This (article from the NYT) gives a whole new meaning to the children’s poem — “Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, …………”   DwN SpaceX Launches 60 Starlink Internet Satellites into Orbit If the mission is successful, … Continue reading →

This is an intriguing recent article from ScienceDaily.com Scientists have shown that transplanting gut bacteria — from a rat that is vulnerable to social stress, to a non-stressed rat — can cause vulnerable behavior in the recipient. The research reveals … Continue reading →

Probably most people don’t think of this, but angiosperms (flowering plants) “evolve over time” — in response a balance between how and which insects pollinate them, and herbivory (how and which animals eat them). “Pollination success” and “mating systems” are … Continue reading →

The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa began its >2-billion-mile journey (in Dec 2014) to rendezvous and land on a rocky body with a diameter of no more than a kilometer; it arrived on Asteroid Ryugu in June 2018, and various studies are … Continue reading →

The importance of our intestinal bacteria (“the gut microbiome“) has often been discussed in these GEITP pages. The extent to which our microbomes contribute to our inter-individual health, disease risk, and even response to drugs and environmental toxicants — is … Continue reading →

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been a common theme on these GEITP pages. Researchers select a phenotype (trait) and then screen the entire genome (looking at differences in single-nucleotide variants; SNVs) of hundreds or thousands of individuals (cohort) — looking … Continue reading →

“Heritability” is defined by “proportion of phenotypic variance (i.e. differences in any trait seen in a population) explained by genetic factors.” However, such estimates are uninformative with respect to the underlying genetic architecture [i.e. the underlying genetic basis of a … Continue reading →