Word: genes
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Ruvkun and his co-recipients found that miRNAs—long regarded as far less versatile players in gene activity—play a significant role in governing growth and development in animals and plants. This discovery could have implications for diseases such as viral infections, heart failure, and cancer, as well as shed light on normal functions like muscle action...
...knew that such small RNAs would have such a critical role in regulating biological processes in animals and plants?” Lasker Foundation President Maria C. Freire said in a statement, adding that scientists had long believed that proteins—not RNAs—regulated gene activity in animal cells...
...University of Miami, the team studied 704 Amish men and women. Although the Amish are a genetically homogeneous group, the study of volunteers' genotypes still showed a genetic diversity that reflected the makeup of the general Caucasian population: Specifically, they exhibited a range of variations on the FTO gene, which previous studies have associated with obesity and high body mass index, or BMI. Experts say about half of all people of European descent possess at least one "heavy" variant of the FTO gene. Within the Amish study group, some volunteers had two copies of a fattening variant; these people were...
...copies of the heavy FTO variant, but still managed to avoid being fat. Their simple trick? Exercise. Rampersaud found that the most physically active men and women in the study were able to stay within a normal BMI range, despite their genetic predisposition; other people with the same gene variants, who were relatively inactive, were overweight. "This is the first time that we can show the direct gene-environment interaction for a gene related to obesity," Rampersaud says. "It re-emphasizes the role that physical activity plays in our daily life - it's not just something people preach. There actually...
...what exact degree physical activity can influence the effect of the FTO gene isn't clear yet, but, says Rampersaud, at least we now know that genes - especially the "wrong" genes - don't necessarily spell out destiny when it comes to weight. And that's a useful lesson to keep in mind when making small daily decisions - taking the stairs instead of the elevator, say, or passing up a dessert. Every little bit can make a difference...