Comments on: Genetics and environment: Interaction in a different key

By: carole

carole — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:46:00 +0000

Razib over on the Gene Expression blog has just put up a post on the monkeys. ( WEd. Jan 14 post). By tomorrow maybe there’ll be a lot of discussion on it there.
I found a post by “neuroskeptic” who is a British neuroscientist with his own blog ( it was a fairly old post) and he spoke of these alleles for serotonin and their relation to biodiveristy, saying that if he remembered correctly 40% of Koreans had two short copies of the allele and Africans had the highest % of two longs.
http://www.gnxp.com/

By: Drowssap

Drowssap — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:43:12 +0000

In reply to carole. Speaking of that scientists recently discovered a virus that causes Type 1 Diabetes in rats. Rats’ virus holds clues to diabetes

The BioBreeding, or BB, rat naturally develops diabetes at about 2 months of age, and researchers have attributed the disease to genetics. The new findings suggest that there is indeed a genetic susceptibility but that the precipitating event is a viral infection.

--- It pretty much always works like that. In fact it couldn't work any other way.

By: Drowssap

Drowssap — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:17:03 +0000

In reply to Evan. It isn't that genes don't make us susceptible to disorders, they do. But the damage has to come from something else. It could be anything including socialization, but it's not part of the original blueprint.

By: carole

carole — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:56:46 +0000

Okay, so yes, it seems as if two short alleles confers a benefit in keeping blood pressure at a healthy level during periods of stress where as the two longs pose a problem for the cardiovascular system under long-term stresses. It’s a trade off looks like. This does look to be a few years old, however.
http://www.innovationmagazine.com/innovation/volumes/v5n3/coverstory2.shtml

By: carole

carole — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:44:35 +0000

Evan said,

There doesn’t seem to be any germ that conks its brain and makes it fearful.

I’m certainly not saying there has to be a germ that causes these monkeys to behave this way, but considering how long it has taken for microbiologists to find the viruses involved in some mental illnesses, why should we think these researchers studying these alleles have eliminated that possibility? We may not even have the technology yet to find evidence of a long-gone pathogen. Looking around for a small population of neurons–where to look?
Serotonin levels are crucial to feelings of emotional well being and passivity vs. aggressiveness, obviously in both humans and monkeys, but I wonder if it’s really the short allele that is the “problem” here, or if something else combined with that short allele is the problem. Might be pathogenic, might not be–could be another neurotransmitter not acting as it should in combo with the serotonin or another receptor problem somewhere.
If it’s only the short allele that makes them that way—then either they do engage in reproductive activities in the wild or that short allele is a protection against something.
I’ve a feeling it’s not just the short allele responsible for the behavior. Bet it’s a combo.