A Surprising Family Legacy: The Molecular Scars of Trauma

Studies by Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City have discovered evidence that supports the effect of trauma over generations through epigenetics and the research of intergenerational transmission of stress effects. If an individual is the descendant of a trauma victim, an example being Holocaust survivors, they will have alteration of their genome. The manipulations discussed range from various changes of specific genes to human response to high risk events, such as cortisol levels. The researchers also speculate that this occurrence happens in individuals who have experienced famine, slavery, and abuse. These trans-generational alterations, from an evolutionary perspective, will produce effects that may be important for survival!

http://health.usnews.com/wellness/articles/2016-10-06/a-surprising-family-legacy-the-molecular-scars-of-trauma

Druonna Collier

How the Naked Mole Rat Escapes Inflammatory Pain

When most animals get injured or have inflammation, they usually experience thermal hyperalgesia. This is when the surrounding tissue gets puffy and sensitive to heat. However, naked mole rats do not experience thermal hyperalgesia. This is thought to be evolutionarily advantageous for the naked mole rats since they live in crowded colonies underground, which can lead to many injuries. If they did get hyperalgesia, they would be in constant pain. The reason naked mole rats don’t experience hyperalgesia is because their TrkA receptors don’t bind to Nerve Growth Factors properly. Scientists are looking to the naked mole rat and its resistance to pain in possibly treating humans with chronic pain. So far, clinical trials involving blocking the receptors have been successful for people!

Source: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-10/mdcf-htn101116.php

-Jenny Huang

Man's Best Friend: A Biological Basis?

Researchers in Sweden have undertaken one of the first projects of its kind, to identify the biological basis for the connection between humans and dogs. To conduct this ambitious experiment, researchers first conducted human-directed behavior tests on a group of 437 laboratory beagles. The beagles were placed in a room with three lidded containers containing treats, and a human participant. The first two containers were designed to be opened easily, but the third was tightly sealed. The dogs were rated on their attempts to seek human help in opening the third container. The primary measures for this were duration of human proximity and duration of human contact. The top 95 and low 95 performers on this task (those who sought out humans the most and least) were then subjected to a GWAS study in which they were SNP genotyped. Researchers then compared SNP genotypes at each locus with performance on the behavior tests. The resulting Manhattan plots are shown here:


Four significant SNP loci were found to be associated with seeking human interaction, two were located within the same gene. The genes found to be significantly linked with these behaviors were SCZ6L, ARVCF, and, less significantly, TXNRD2, COMT and TANGO2. Researchers discovered that these genes were also known to be associated with social behaviors and disorders in humans. SCZ6L has been associated with autism, and ARVCF, COMT, and TXNRD2 have been associated with schizophrenia. COMT polymorphisms have additionally been associated with mood regulation and aggressive behavior in those with ADHD. This research is important because it reveals more about the genetic basis of human and dog relationships, and therefore more about breeding and domestication practices. Researchers also suggest that the discovery of the same genes linked with social behavior in humans could be useful for using dogs to understand more about human social behaviors. 
Sources: 
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/29/secret-of-connection-between-dogs-and-humans-could-be-genetic
http://www.nature.com/articles/srep33439

New Treatment Halts Huntington's Disease Activity in Mice

Article: http://www.sciencealert.com/activity-of-the-huntington-s-disease-gene-has-been-halted-for-6-months-in-mice

Research Study: http://molecularneurodegeneration.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13024-016-0128-x


Researchers have successfully tested a new treatment option that stops the activity of Huntington's for an extended period of time. Huntington's is the result of a mutation in the Huntingtin gene. It is caused by an abnormally large number of CAG repeats, which produce a mutant form of the protein. It affects brain function and causes twitching/jerking.

The treatment includes an injection of a Zinc Finger protein that binds to a DNA sequence. In this study, the used a ZF protein to bind to the CAG tri-nucleotide repeats on the Huntingtin gene in the fourth chromosome. The protein's purpose is to represses the expression of the gene, which in theory should lower the amount of potentially harmful proteins that cause Huntington's.

In mice, the treatment repressed more than 50% of the mutant gene for 6 weeks, and still showed repression after 6 months (23%).

There is no cure for Huntington's and the exact cause in unknown, but researchers think that by attacking the expression of the gene itself, they can slow the progression of the disease. In order to do that, they must try to see how repressing the gene is affecting the symptoms of Huntington's and if the symptoms themselves are being halted long-term or not. They have strong evidence for that, so we may see human clinical trials in as soon as 5 years!




Arash Panjwani

Incoming Revolution to Forensic Palynology

Pollen is everywhere, but certain types of pollen are found only in specific locations and times. This makes pollen and excellent biomarker in criminal and civil investigation. The analysis of pollen for this purpose is called forensic palynology. Forensic palynology, traditionally painstakingly preformed by a highly trained expert equipped with a microscope, may use genetic analysis in the near future.

While DNA barcoding in the past has been ineffective in identifying land plants headway has been made in finding suitable markers. Two genes, matK and rbcL, are the start of a usable system for identification. This in combination with Next Generation Sequencing, NGS, allows for metabarcoding, identification of multiple species at the same time, of pollen and spores an essential process for genetic analysis of pollen to be integrated in forensic palynology.

With these and future advancements, such as a larger reference database for species identification and location and additional complementary markers, genetic analysis should make its way into forensic palynology.

-Olaf B. Corning
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/Change-Agent/2016/0923/How-pollen-could-be-the-next-big-thing-in-forensic-investigations
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187249731530106X