Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, March 26. According to a genetics research report published recently in the UK’s “Nature and Communications” magazine, Canadian scientists conducted an analysis of thousands of individuals in the same region and in different regions and showed that they were exposed to local environmental factors. - Air pollution, for example, has a greater impact on regulating gene expression and health than genetic background.
The increase in industrialization and the use of fossil fuels has led to air pollution in many parts of the world. Among them, respirable particulates are the primary pollutants in the air of many cities and regions, while inhalable particulate matter enters the human body mainly through the respiratory tract. In the past, people believed that there were different genetic backgrounds. (When studying the genes of a particular trait, the genetic composition of the rest of the DNA in the genome is the genetic background of the gene.) People respond differently to environmental factors, so individuals have different heritability and disease risk for specific diseases. , The risk of environmental exposure and the interaction of the environmental exposure with the genome have not yet been fully understood by humans.
In view of this, Philip Andradea, a scientist at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Canada, and colleagues collected and evaluated environmental exposures, health, gene expression levels, and genome-wide genetic differences from 1,007 subjects from different parts of Quebec. Information and other data.
Through investigation and analysis, the research team found that the effect of the environment shown in the blood sample on gene expression is greater than the effect of the genetic background on gene expression. In addition, local environmental air pollution, such as fine particulate matter (PM2.5) Nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide modulate the expression of genes in the human body that affect the characteristics of cardiovascular metabolism and respiration. They can lead to lung diseases and arteriosclerosis.
The research team concluded that the new findings show how the local environment directly affects the individual's disease risk, and also discover that genetic differences can regulate individuals' responses to environmental challenges.