Archive for the ‘Male Genetics’ Category

The UK has the fifth highest number of bald men in the world.

Indeed, almost 40 per cent of men in this country are losing their hair.

It's often hereditary - male pattern baldness or androgenic alopecia, which is related to genes and male sex hormones, accounts for 95 per cent of hair loss in men.

Other reasons for thinning hair include stress, anaemia, protein deficiency and low vitamin levels.

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A recent study published in JAMA Dermatology found that there's no relationship between hair loss and testosterone levels in men.

However, surprisingly, a recent study published in JAMA Dermatology found there's no relationship between hair loss and testosterone levels in men.

If you want to maintain your head of hair for as long as possible, start to pay more attention to your daily grooming habits.

Jumping in and out of the shower as quickly as possible might mean more time in bed, but it could be speeding up you going bald.

That's because taking the time to massage your head as you shampoo stimulates hair growth.

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Ananbel Kingsley, trichologist at Philip Kingsley, said: "Scalp massage can be beneficial for those experiencing a gradual reduction in hair volume or hair loss."

It does this by improving blood flow directly to the area, and by removing dead skin cells which have been proven to cause or worsen hair loss.

She explained: "It should ideally be done for five to ten minutes once to twice a week. It should be gentle yet firm with consistent pressure.

"Using both hands, gently knead your scalp in circular movements starting at the front hairline and gradually working your way back down to the nape of your neck.

"Repeat three to four times, then, with a gentle sweeping action, smooth your hands over the top of your scalp."

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Additionally, a study published in the International Journal of Neuroscience found that massaging your scalp also lowers hair loss-inducing stress levels.

However, Anabel added: "Scalp massage alone will not have a vast impact on hair growth. Its benefits are highly dependent on what is used during massage - try a stimulating scalp mask.

"Additionally, one of the most common causes of hair loss is the result of iron and ferritin - stored iron - deficiency.

"A healthy diet, eating adequate iron and proteins and taking care of your general health will help prevent both hair loss and hair thinning and will often improve the general appearance of the hair."

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Hair loss in men: THIS shower habit could be why you're going bald - Express.co.uk

The Hindu

Nilgiris pale tiger an 'aberrant genetic mutation' The Hindu While the pale tiger of the Nilgiris has won global attention, it could be just an instance of an aberrant genetic mutation, say experts. This is interesting because no pale tiger has been recorded in south India so far, says Yadvendradev Jhala ... and more »

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Nilgiris pale tiger an 'aberrant genetic mutation' - The Hindu

The world learned the details of the Islamic States systemic rape and slavery of women through shocking stories told to the New York Times in 2015.Our collective outrage also showed how war has changed. Rape, torture and slavery are considered beyond taboo; they are criminalized even in war. This archaic behavior is not supposed to happen in our modern world.

But thats a pretty recent development. Systemic rape used to go hand in hand with war as women, resources and landswere assimilated into the victors communities. The victorious menhad more children, more land and more power. Some researchers have argued that this is proof of the deep roots theory of war: Human males fight each other for reproductive advantage, proving that war is an evolutionary advantageous behavior.

But this theory has been hard to prove. In fact, studies of human groups and other primates have added to the evidence both for and against the controversial idea that humans were made for war, evolutionarily speaking. A January 2015study indicates that societies dont actually benefit from head-to-head action, though other forms of violence do pay off.

Harvard evolutionary biologists Luke Glowaki and Richard Wrangham studied the Nyangatom people of East Africa. The group are polygamous shepherds who raise small livestock and can have multiple wives. At times, the Nyangatom go to war with other groups. But there is a another pervasive and nearly constant form of violence in the group. Young riders make raids on nearby camps with the goal of stealing cattle. Glowaki and Wrangham asked if either or both of these types of violence was beneficial to the men who engaged in them. They measured by counting the the number of wives and kids they had.

This study is one of many that has heightened thedebate over how muchwar has had an impact on a warriors evolutionary success. At least in this society,sneaking around after dark and stealing cows may have beenmore consequential. Robert Sapolosky at the Wall Street Journal explained:

By contrast, lots of battle raidingopen-field, daytime combat with hundreds of participantsdid not serve as a predictor of elevated reproductive success, probably because such fighting carried a nontrivial chance of winding up dead. In other words, in this society, being a warrior on steroids did not predict reproductive success; being a low-down sneaky varmint of a cattle rustler did.

But researchers only discovered this by looking at the elders in the community. Stealthy animal raiding did lead to better outcomes but decades later. In Nyangatom culture, most of the stolen livestock goes to fathers and other paternal relatives rather than being kept by the young men who stole them. The male heads of families made marriage decisions for their younger relatives. So, while it this kind of violence makes a difference, the payoff is quite delayed. The researchers speculated the cattle-rustling effect would be stronger in a group where the raiders got to keep the livestock they stole and incentives were strengthened.

Other studies also point to the idea that inter-group warfare might not be beneficial, but intra-group violence is. Chimpanzee tribes, for example dont often go to war with other tribes. Instead the most common types of violence involve a group of males ganging up on one individual male. This often happens when conditions are crowded or there were increased numbers of males in the tribe. And the researchers found that chimps participation in violence happened outside of the spheres of human influence, meaning violence was not a behavior the chimpanzees learned from us.

But other evidence suggests that humans likely didnt participate in war as we know it until relatively recently. A 2013 survey of killings in 21 groups (foragers rather than shepherds) found that group warfare was rare compared to homicide. John Horgan categorized the evidence at Scientific American:

Some other points of interest: 96 percent of the killers were male. No surprise there. But some readers may be surprised that only two out of 148 killings stemmed from a fight over resources, such as a hunting ground, water hole or fruit tree. Nine episodes of lethal aggression involved husbands killing wives; three involved execution of an individual in a group by other members of the group; seven involved execution of outsiders, such as colonizers or missionaries. Most of the killings stemmed from what Fry and Soderberg categorize as miscellaneous personal disputes, involving jealousy, theft, insults and so on. The most common specific cause of deadly violenceinvolving either single or multiple perpetratorswas revenge for a previous attack.So it maybe that a proclivity for violence and an innate sense of revenge that perpetuates war, rather than war itself.

Another factor to consider is that while our common ancestors lived in groups like these thousands of years ago, almost no one does anymore. In fact, finding these undisturbed cultures is hard to do. Having more cows doesnt carry the same appeal it once did. Its unlikely stealing your neighbors TV for your uncle will fetch you a better bride. Some scientists worry that if we accept the idea that violence was a beneficial tool for our ancestors, it somehow overturns the societal progress that has moved us beyond the rape and pillage culture to something still imperfect, but largely more peaceful.

This is the biggest struggle with the deep roots theory of human violence. Just because something garnered an advantage thousands of years ago doesnt make it okay today. Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, who has written a book on human violence, said in the Boston Globe:

romantics worry that if violence is a Darwinian adaptation, that must mean that it is good, or that its futile to work for peace, because humans have an innate thirst for blood that has to be periodically slaked. Needless to say, I think all this is profoundly wrongheaded.

Meredith Knight is a contributor to the human genetics section for Genetic Literacy Project and a freelance science and health writer in Austin, Texas. Follow her @meremereknight.

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Evolution and war: The 'deep roots' theory of human violence - Genetic Literacy Project

An influx of men from the steppe of Central Asia may have swept into India around 3,500 years ago and transformed the population.

The same mysterious people ancient livestock herders called the Yamnaya who rode wheeled chariots and spoke a proto-Indo-European language also moved across Europe more than 1,000 years earlier. Somehow, they left their genetic signature with most European men, but not women, earlier studies suggest.

The new data confirm a long-held but controversial theory that Sanskrit, the ancient language of Northern India, emerged from an earlier language spoken by an influx of people from Central Asia during the Bronze Age. [24 Amazing Archaeological Discoveries]

"People have been debating the arrival of the Indo-European languages in India for hundreds of years," said study co-author Martin Richards, an archaeogeneticist at the University of Huddersfield in England. "There's been a very long-running debate about whether the Indo-European languages were brought from migrations from outside, which is what most linguists would accept, or if they evolved indigenously."

From the earliest days of colonial rule in India, linguists like William Jones and Jakob Grimm (who co-edited "Grimm's Fairy Tales") noticed that Sanskrit shared many similarities with languages as disparate as French, English, Farsi (or Persian) and Russian. Linguists eventually arrived at the conclusion that all these languages derived from a common ancestral language, which they dubbed Indo-European.

But while North Indian languages are predominantly Indo-European, South Indian languages mostly belong to the Dravidian language family. To explain this, scholars proposed the so-called Aryan invasion theory that a group of people from outside India swept in and brought a proto-Sanskrit language to northern India. (The name "Aryans" came from a Sanskrit word for "noble" or "honorable.") In the early 1900s, British archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler proposed that these Aryan people may have conquered, and caused the collapse of, the mysterious Indus Valley Civilization that flourished in what is now India and Pakistan.

The Aryan migration theory eventually became controversial because it was used to justify claims of superiority for different Indian subgroups; was claimed as the basis for the caste system; and in a bastardized form, was incorporated into Nazi ideology that the Aryans were the "master race."

What's more, earlier genetic data did not seem to corroborate the notion of a dramatic Aryan influx into India during the Bronze Age, according to a 2003 study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

But past genetic analyses were based on either DNA from mitochondria, which is passed from mothers to daughters, or from genetic mutations found in nuclear DNA, which are inherited from both parents but can be difficult to date.

In the current study, which was reported in March in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, Richards and colleagues analyzed modern genetic data from mitochondrial DNA, Y-chromosome DNA which is passed only from father to son and nuclear DNA. By tying all these pieces of data together, the team was able to tie patterns of migration to specific points in time.

The team found evidence that people began colonizing India more than 50,000 years ago and that there were multiple waves of migration into India from the northwest over the last 20,000 years, including waves of people from Anatolia, the Caucasus and Iran between 9,000 and 5,000 years ago.

But evidence for one migration was particularly striking: The genetic makeup of the Y chromosome dramatically shifted about 4,000 to 3,800 years ago, the study found. About 17.5 percent of Indian men carry a Y-chromosome subtype, or haplogroup, known as R1, with the haplogroup more dominant in men in the north compared to the south of India.

This new finding points to an ancient group of people who inhabited the grassland between the Caspian and Black seas from about 5,000 to 2,300 years ago, known broadly as the Yamnaya people. The Yamnaya (and its later subgroup, the Andronovo culture) typically buried their dead in pit graves, drove wheeled horse chariots, herded livestock and spoke an early precursor Indo-European language. About 5,000 years ago, people from this culture almost completely transformed the genetic landscape of Europe, a 2015 Science study suggests.

The genetic signature of the Yamnaya people shows up strongly in the male lineage, but hardly at all in the female lineage, the study found.

One possibility is that a group of horse-riding warriors swept across India, murdered the men and raped or took local women as wives, but not all explanations are that martial, Richards said. For instance, it's possible that whole family units from the Yamnaya migrated to India, but that the men were either able to acquire (or started out with) higher status than local males and thus sired more children with local women, Richards said.

"It's very easy for Y-chromosome composition to change very quickly," Richards told Live Science. "Just because individual men can have a lot more children than women can."

The shift wasn't as dramatic as the genetic transformation of Europe; while up to 90 percent of European men from some countries carry a version of R1, only a minority of men from the Indian subcontinent do, Richards said.

"It's not like a complete wipeout by any means," Richards said.

The study has a limitation: Because the very hot conditions in India don't preserve DNA well, the group lacks ancient DNA to prove that ancient migrants to the region carried the R1 haplogroup, said James Mallory, an archaeologist at Queen's University Belfast in Ireland, who was not involved in the study.

"They're trying to read the history of a people through its modern DNA," Mallory told Live Science. In the past, similarly well-grounded theories have been disproven once people sampled ancient skeletal remains, Mallory added.

The other problem is that there is very little archaeological evidence for a dramatic cultural transformation in India at that time, he added. The Andronovo left behind distinctive artifacts and evidence of their culture in other places, such as their pit burials and unique pottery.

But in India, "We do not really find evidence for these particular cultures," Mallory said.

On the other hand, population studies of the Irish have revealed almost 90 percent of men carry an R1 haplogroup, and yet there's also very little archaeological evidence of a cultural transformation consistent with huge population turnover, he added. So it may simply be that genetics are revealing a lost history of people in the area.

"The genetics are continually giving archaeologists surprises," Mallory said.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Aryan Invasion May Have Transformed India's Bronze-Age Population - Live Science

Women live longer than men in many countries around the world. In the United States, women outlive men by an average of five years. Scientists have long attributed this divide to genetics and biology, but a physician at Duke University is posing an alternative theory: toxic masculinity.

Haider Warraich is a clinical researcher and cardiology fellow atDuke University Medical Centerwho authored a new article in The Guardian that explores how male attitudes towards their own health may be at the core of the disparity in life expectancy.

Host Frank Stasio talks with clinical researcher and cardiology fellow Haider Warraich about the disparity in life expectancy for men.

Host Frank Stasio speaks with Warraich about why men in the U.S. tend to wait longer to seek physical and psychological help. They also discuss how the idea of manly behaviors, like drinking and smoking, may lead to lowered health outcomes.

INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS

On changes in gender-based life expectancy through history: In the start of the 18th century women and men lived for about the same duration, which was surprisingly just to the mid 20s ... But then as we got better at making sure that childbirth wasn't a death sentence, and women were actually able to give birth and not die off prematurely, we started to see a gap emerge. We started to see women consistently, across societies, lived longer than men.

On the persistent gap in male to female life expectancy: That gap in the United States is about five years. In other countries such as Russia it's about 10 years. This is certainly something we have not seen for the expanse of human civilization but certainly something that we now see consistently across most developed societies.

On biological theories that seek to explain why women live longer: The female sex hormone estrogen conveys some protection as far as reducing the risk of heart disease ... Some have postulated that the fact that women have a faster heart rate in general in some ways or somehow simulates the effect of exercise which is why they're able to live longer. And others have said The female birth rate is higher. We have more female children than we have male children, which in some ways suggests that even from an almost embryonic stage women have some type of advantage over men. Those are some of the biological theories that have been postulated.

Why biological theories don't paint a full picture of the life expectancy gap: What we're seeing more and more is that it is male behaviors that are likely driving men dying off earlier than women ... Some of these behaviors just have to do with the fact that men are more likely to take risks than women. Some of that has to do with the fact that the male hormone testosterone drives risk-taking behavior. But a lot of it is a construct of society. Men have a higher rate of smoking pretty much across the world. Men drink more. Men have more road traffic accidents, gunshot wounds et cetera. All of these are things that are driven by male behaviors. Men are less likely to seek the help of a physician if they fall sick. Men who have some type of psychiatric issues such as depression or anxiety, or other things, are less likely to go see a psychiatrist.

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How Masculinity Can Be Bad For Men's Health - WUNC

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Words do not begin to explain how grateful we are for all their help and for giving us our little miracle that is slowly on its way. It is truly a blessing to be given the opportunity that these beautiful individuals have provided to our families and ourselves.

With Dr. Abae every step of the way was individualized and there was always ample time to ask talk; we are having twins.

I cried when I only had two embryos for transfer, but Dr. Abae said: Why are you crying? We ve got the best two embryos ever. He was right, my child is beautiful.

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The Hindu

The problematics of genetics and the Aryan issue The Hindu Finally, the study opines that genetic influx from Central Asia in the Bronze Age was strongly male-driven, consistent with the patriarchal, patrilocal and patrilineal social structure attributed to the inferred pastoralist early Indo-European society ...

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The problematics of genetics and the Aryan issue - The Hindu

Written by Kavitha Iyer | Jalna | Updated: July 3, 2017 9:17 am GBIT got around 12,000 male OX513A mosquitoes in 2011, several generations have evolved in its Jalna lab.

EVEN as urban local bodies gear up for annual monsoon outbreaks of dengue and malaria, inside a nondescript mesh cage at Jalna in central Maharashtra, trials are underway on several generations of a friendly mosquito that a handful of countries are already experimenting with for vector control programmes.

In the cage are hundreds of Aedes Aegypti vector mosquitoes, responsible for spreading dengue and chikungunya among other diseases, but engineered through advanced biotechnology to be self-limiting in other words, genetically modified to cause offspring to die.

While GM Mustard continues to await a final nod from the Union government, Gangabishan Bhikulal Investment and Trading Limited (GBIT), which is testing the transgenic mosquitoes along with Oxitec Limited, an Oxford University spin-out biotech company, is pinning its hopes on the urgency around finding effective vector management technologies.

The Aedes Aegypti mosquito, the vector responsible for dengue and chikungunya outbreaks, has survived traditional fumigating and there is no immediate mass-scale programme to control these outbreaks. From a public health perspective, this is a crucial area where intervention can be made, says Shirish Barwale, director of GBIT, one of the Barwale Group companies that include hybrid seed major Mahyco.

Already, Oxitec is partnering with agencies in Brazil, Panama, the US and the Cayman Islands for trials and pilot projects. In India, GBIT expects to approach regulators seeking permissions for the next phase limited trials in an open field early next year. Phase One of the trials was in the laboratory, and Phase Two, a contained trial in cages, is currently underway. Once the results of this phase are ready, then we expect to go into Phase Three, which would be open field trials, said Dr Shaibal Dasgupta, GBITs lead scientist on the project. By February or March 2018, we will be more or less ready and will submit results.

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director Dr Soumya Swaminathan agrees that there is a need for a graded response to trials around GM technology meant for disease control. We definitely need to look for alternative technologies for the future, she said.

The friendly Aedes has already been trademarked by Oxitec. These are transgenic male mosquitoes with a self-limiting gene inserted through advanced genetics. Banking upon the males natural instinct to mate with a wild female, the OX513A strain is inherited by offspring, causing the larvae to die before maturing into adult mosquitoes.

What we do is a regular quality check on the effectivity of the gene. We mate the OX513A male mosquito with the local female and check the mortality. That is the test of effectivity of the gene, says Dr Dasgupta. GBIT says their quality checks have shown no deviation from the expected performance of the gene in subsequent generations of the mosquito. At Oxitec, over 150 generations of the mosquito have been tested by now, only batches getting tetracycline surviving into adulthood. Again, no deviation has been found in gene penetrance.

Asked whether the local agricultural community around the Jalna facility is aware of the active test site, GBIT says they have a detailed engagement plan to set into motion before open trials. We would need to involve the local community for the next round of open trials, as and when we get approvals. At present, discussion with the village close to the site is on and is at the initial stages, said an official of GBIT.

Among the things they expect to tell villagers is that only male mosquitoes are to be released the male Aedes Aegypti neither bites humans nor spreads disease. Also, the OX513A gene being self limiting, it does not remain in the environment unless it gets tetracycline. Scientists also say no toxins are introduced in the bio-engineered OX513A mosquitoes, so birds eating these mosquitoes will not be in any danger. Also, as the Aedes Aegypti only mates with its own kind, DNA sequences will not be spread to any other organism.

But one problem, is the absence of convincing data from previous trials on the impact of a reduced vector population on incidence of disease. Other doubts include the possibility that the wild female will, over generations, prefer only the wild male Aedes Aegypti.

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Scientists arming new weapon against dengue, malaria mosquitoes - The Indian Express

Sex chromosome, either of a pair of chromosomes that determine whether an individual is male or female. The sex chromosomes of human beings and other mammals are designated by scientists as X and Y. In humans the sex chromosomes comprise one pair of the total of 23 pairs of chromosomes. The other 22 pairs of chromosomes are called autosomes.

Individuals having two X chromosomes (XX) are female; individuals having one X chromosome and one Y chromosome (XY) are male. The X chromosome resembles a large autosomal chromosome with a long and a short arm. The Y chromosome has one long arm and a very short second arm. This path to maleness or femaleness originates at the moment of meiosis, when a cell divides to produce gametes, or sex cells having half the normal number of chromosomes. During meiosis the male XY sex-chromosome pair separates and passes on an X or a Y to separate gametes; the result is that one-half of the gametes (sperm) that are formed contains the X chromosome and the other half contains the Y chromosome. The female has two X chromosomes, and all female egg cells normally carry a single X. The eggs fertilized by X-bearing sperm become females (XX), whereas those fertilized by Y-bearing sperm become males (XY).

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sex: Sex chromosomes

In most species of animals the sex of individuals is determined decisively at the time of fertilization of the egg, by means of chromosomal distribution. This process is the most clear-cut form of sex determination. When any cell in the body divides, except during the formation of the sex cells, each daughter cell receives the full complement of chromosomes; i.e., copies of the two sets...

Unlike the paired autosomes, in which each member normally carries alleles (forms) of the same genes, the paired sex chromosomes do not carry an identical complement of genetic information. The X chromosome, being larger, carries many more genes than does the Y. Traits controlled by genes found only on the X chromosome are said to be sex-linked (see linkage group). Recessive sex-linked traits, such as hemophilia and redgreen colour blindness, occur far more frequently in men than in women. This is because the male who inherits the recessive allele on his X chromosome has no allele on his Y chromosome to counteract its effects. The female, on the other hand, must inherit the recessive allele on both of her X chromosomes in order to fully display the trait. A woman who inherits the recessive allele for a sex-linked disorder on one of her X chromosomes may, however, show a limited expression of the trait. The reason for this is that, in each somatic cell of a normal female, one of the X chromosomes is randomly deactivated. This deactivated X chromosome can be seen as a small, dark-staining structurethe Barr bodyin the cell nucleus.

The effects of genes carried only on the Y chromosome are, of course, expressed only in males. Most of these genes are the so-called maleness determiners, which are necessary for development of the testes in the fetus.

Several disorders are known to be associated with abnormal numbers of sex chromosomes. Turners syndrome and Klinefelters syndrome are among the most common of these. See also X trisomy; XYY-trisomy.

sex chromosome disorder of human females, in which three X chromosomes are present, rather than the normal pair. More common than Turners syndrome, where only one X chromosome is present, X-trisomy usually remains undetected because affected individuals appear normal, experience puberty,...

relatively common human sex chromosome anomaly in which a male has two Y chromosomes rather than one. It occurs in 1 in 5001,000 live male births, and individuals with the anomaly are often characterized by tallness and severe acne and sometimes by skeletal malformations and mental...

the sum of features by which members of species can be divided into two groupsmale and femalethat complement each other reproductively.

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sex chromosome | genetics | Britannica.com

The biological differences between men and women can affect the way they react to certain drugs and treatments, according to a new study in Nature Communications. If this sounds like a no brainer, you probably haven't looked at many biomedical studies. As PopSci noted earlier this year, biomedical researchers experiment almost exclusively on male animal subjects. A 2011 study found that animals in medical research are up to five times more likely to be male than female.

That's a problem, because what happens in men is not necessarily a template for what happens in the whole population. Results in rodents are already difficult to translate to potential outcomes in humans, but leaving female animals out of the mix could make for even less predictable reactions. The new study indicates that sex has an impact on 56.6 percent of quantitative traits (things like bone density) and roughly 10 percent of qualitative traits (like whether or not a mouses head was shaped normally). All of which makes sense. We know that certain diseaseslupus and urinary tract infections, for exampleare more prevalent in human women than in men. Other diseases, like heart disease, have different qualities depending on sex. The protective effects of estrogen on the cardiovascular system mean that biologically female patients tend to develop heart disease later in life than male patients, for example. As estrogen declines with menopause, the likelihood of heart disease increases.

While its long been known that this blind spot exists in the scientific world, the actual impact on results has been less clear. The new study aims to quantify the differences between male and female study subjects, known as sexual dimorphism. The team analyzed up to 234 physical characteristics in more than 60,000 mice14,250 wildtype animals, or animals as they typically occur in nature, and 40,192 mutant mice from 2,186 single gene knockout lines. Knockout mice have been genetically engineered, with researchers making a single gene inactive to show what role it plays. The 40,192 mice had a total of 2,186 genes knocked out (though no more than one single gene was knocked out per mouse).

As it turned out, sex altered the mutation effects by 17.7 percent in quantitative traits, and 13.3 percent in qualitative traits. And in some cases, the only way to discover the difference was to study both sexes. So while gene therapies may hold promise for treating and curing human disease, a sex bias in rodent trials could mean that biological men benefit much more from these advances than their female counterparts.

The researchers are simply working to confirm something that an increasing number of scientists acknowledge: sex matters. People who menstruate, can potentially have children, have organs that biological males do not, and metabolize drugs differently can have drastically different responses to all manner of medical interventions. In fact, medications are most likely to be pulled off the market because of adverse reactions in womensomething that could easily be avoided if drug manufacturers were equally rigorous in testing drugs for both sexes.

When female subjects are included in studies, they tend to be tested (as PopSci noted in our recent article on sunscreen) when they are at their most "male-like", biologically speakingeither when they're menopausal or in the period before ovulation and menstruation. Researchers say that doing so makes their experiments simpler, because hormonal cycles add too many variables to the mix. The fact that this fails to account for the conditions under which many patients will actually take these medications is apparently inconsequential.

Its been just under 27 years since the National Institutes of Health created the Office of Research on Womens Health as a step to overcome the systemic exclusion of women from biomedical studies. Their worry was that clinical decisions in healthcare were being made for everyone based only on findings from studies conducted on male subjects. For over two decades, the National Institutes of Health has required that clinical trialsthe last step before drugs make it to marketinclude women. While the number of women in clinical trials has increased, from nine percent in 1970 to 41 percent in 2006, women are still underrepresented in clinical trials and, as this new study makes clear, woefully underrepresented in animal trials.

"This study illustrates how often sex differences occur in traits that we would otherwise assume to be the same in males and females, says study author Judith Manka, a geneticist at University College London. More importantly, the fact that a mouse's sex influenced the effects of genetic modification indicates that males and females differ right down to the underlying genetics behind many traits. This means that only studying males paints half the picture."

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Scientific studies favor male miceand that could hurt a lot of humans - Popular Science

If a dangerously inbred puma population in Southern California is to survive in the future, an urgent need for genetic connectivity must be met, according to two scientific papers from a team of researchers coordinated by UC Davis and involving scientists at the University of Wyoming and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

The first paper, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science in May, reports that the puma population of about 20 adults in the Santa Ana Mountains has the lowest genetic diversity ever reported for pumas besides the Florida panther, which nearly went extinct from genetic causes. Read the journal report at http://bit.ly/2sew1LT.

The pumas isolation is primarily due to surrounding urbanization from Los Angeles and San Diego.

The only hope for puma movements in and out of the Santa Ana Mountains is to cross I-15 an eight- to 10-lane interstate highway which poses a major barrier for pumas attempting to migrate between the Santa Ana Mountains and the rural Eastern Peninsular Mountains, said lead author Kyle Gustafson, a postdoctoral conservation geneticist from the University of Wyoming.

University of Wyoming researchers conducted genetic analyses of both radio-collared and uncollared pumas to develop a multigeneration pedigree. This showed where pumas and their offspring were born, and whether they successfully migrated and reproduced after crossing I-15, which separates the Santa Ana Mountains from other mountain ranges to the east.

The power of one Although seven males crossed I-15 over the past 20 years, only one male puma #86 (M86) was able to successfully produce offspring in the Santa Anas after migrating from the genetically diverse population to the east. By producing a total of 11 detected offspring, M86 rapidly disseminated unique genes into the inbred population, which reduced the level of inbreeding and significantly increased genetic diversity.

Unfortunately, M86 was hit by a car between 2014 and 2015, and more than half of his offspring are either now deceased or in captivity.

This is consistent with mortality rates we found previously in the region, said Winston Vickers, a wildlife veterinarian from UCDs Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center who conducted most of the field research. Only one other migrant, named M119, remains in the Santa Ana Mountains, but whether he is alive or produced offspring is uncertain.

Senior author Holly Ernest, a wildlife population geneticist and research veterinarian at the University of Wyoming, said that by introducing new genetic material and raising the level of genetic diversity in this population, that single male mountain lion, M86, performed what amounts to a genetic rescue.

Our study also shows how quickly his genetics were lost by high mortality levels of his offspring, Ernest said. A message here is that this population needs help to regain healthy genetics and persist in the Southern California landscape. That help can come in the form of just a few individuals over time adding new blood to the population.

Connectivity is key The second paper, published in June in the journal PLOS ONE, provides a potential solution to this issue. In it, the researchers propose a conservation network for pumas spanning the Santa Ana Mountains and the Eastern Peninsular Mountains. Read the journal report at http://bit.ly/2rYuYv3.

Using genetic data and data from GPS radio-collared pumas, this analysis identified critical habitat patches, movement corridors, and key road crossing locations across I-15 that would allow pumas to persist and increase genetic diversity.

Without continued emigration into the Santa Ana Mountains by pumas coming from the east of I-15, eroding genetic diversity and continued inbreeding are expected to resume, said veterinarian Walter Boyce, co-director of the Wildlife Health Centers Southern California Mountain Lion Study with Vickers.

UC Davis News

Link:
So Cal mountain lions' low genetic diversity threatens population - Davis Enterprise

A Lipizzan stallion named Conversano Sessana, born in 2001.The Y sequence that is needed as a template to detect variants in any horse is generated from a stallion of this breed. Spanische Hofreitschule Wien

A group of researchers led by Barbara Wallner of the Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics in Vienna, Austria sampled the genes of 52 modern horses representing 21 different breeds for their study. They included the famous white dancing Lipizzaners, quarter horses, cobs, Thoroughbreds and Arabians.

The team focused on the male specific

The findings were startling. Most of the horses in common use descend from just two lineages, the Arabian lineage from the Arabian Peninsula and the Turkoman lineage from the steppes of Central Asia, also widely known as "Oriental" among horse breeders, as reported in the Journal of Current Biology.

Related:

"Apart from stallion lines in Northern European breeds, all stallion lines detected in other modern breeds derive from more recently introduced Oriental ancestors," Wallner said.

Its not surprising that a few studs would have a large number of progeny. Females can have one or two foals a year, while males can sire many.

It seems medieval horse breeders made great use of a few very strong specimens, Wallner said, breeding them with local mares.

The qualities they were looking for are still the same qualities people still admire today.

They wanted them because they were beautiful. They wanted them to be faster and stronger and lighter, Wallner told NBC News.

Related:

Theres plenty of history about horse breeding and its no secret that Arabian stallions were desired and shipped long distances for breeding.

Of particular importance was the trend to import stallions from foreign studs to improve local herds. In central Europe, this practice started in the 16th century with the popularity of Spanish and Neapolitan stallions. Until the end of the 18th century, the Central European horse population was shaped by the introduction of Oriental stallions, they wrote.

A person riding a Lipizzan stallion. They perform in the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Spanische Hofreitschule Wien

Wallners study shows just how few male lines ended up surviving the process.

Other research has looked at mitochondrial DNA, which females pass down virtually unchanged to their children. This collection of DNA is particularly diverse in horses, demonstrating that many, many mares are ancestors of modern horses.

Now Wallner wants to collect DNA from the remains of ancient horses to see if she can determine when wild horse were first domesticated, and where.

Similar recent studies have shown the surprising

More here:
Horse Tale: Oriental Stallions Dominate Horse DNA, Gene Study Shows - NBCNews.com

WASHINGTON Jim Lewis and Jim Springer were identical twins raised apart from the age of 4 weeks. When the twins were finally reunited at the age of 39 in 1979, they discovered they both suffered from tension headaches, were prone to nail biting, smoked Salem cigarettes, drove the same type of car and even vacationed at the same beach in Florida.

The culprit for the odd similarities? Genes.

Genes can help explain why someone is gay or straight, religious or not, brainy or not, and even whether they're likely to develop gum disease, one psychologist explains.

Such broad-ranging genetic effects first came to light in a landmark study Minnesota Twin Family Study conducted from 1979 to 1999, which followed identical and fraternal twins who were separated at an early age. [Seeing Double: 8 Fascinating Facts About Twins]

"We were surprised by certain behaviors that showed a genetic influence, such as religiosity [and] social attitudes," said Nancy Segal, an evolutionary psychologist at California State University, Fullerton, who was part of the study for nine years. "Those surprised us, because we thought those certainly must come from the family [environment]," Segal told Live Science. Segal described the groundbreaking research on Aug. 7 here at a meeting of the American Psychological Association.

Born together, raised apart

Researchers at the University of Minnesota, led by Thomas Bouchard, launched the landmark study in 1979. Over the course of 20 years, they studied 137 pairs of twins 81 pairs of identical twins (twins who developed from one egg that split in two), and 56 pairs of fraternal twins (twins who developed from two eggs fertilized by two different sperm).

The Jim twins were probably the most famous set of twins involved in the study, but other pairs were equally fascinating. One pair of female twins in the study were separated from each other at 5 months old, and weren't reunited until age 78, making them the world's longest separated pair in Guinness World Records.

The Minnesota study resulted in more than 170 individual studies focusing on different medical and psychological characteristics.

In one study, the researchers took photographs of the twins, and found that identical twins would stand the same way, while fraternal twins had different postures.

Another study of four pairs of twins found that genetics had a stronger influence on sexual orientation in male twins than in female twins. A recent study in Sweden of 4,000 pairs of twins has replicated these findings, Segal said. [5 Myths About Gay People Debunked]

Nature vs. nurture

A 1986 study that was part of the larger Minnesota study found that genetics plays a larger role on personality than previously thought. Environment affected personality when twins were raised apart, but not when they were raised together, the study suggested.

Reporter Daniel Goleman wrote in The New York Times at the time that genetic makeup was more influential on personality than child rearing a finding he said would launch "fierce debate."

"We never said [family environment] didn't matter," Segal said at the APA meeting. "We just made the point that environment works in ways we hadn't expected."

Another study, commissioned by the editor of the journal Science, looked at genetics and IQ. The Minnesota researchers found that about 70 percent of IQ variation across the twin population was due to genetic differences among people, and 30 percent was due to environmental differences. The finding received both praise and criticism, but an updated study in 2009 containing new sets of twins found a similar correlation between genetics and IQ.

Moreover, a study in 1990 found that genetics account for 50 percent of the religiosity among the population in other words, both identical twins raised apart were more likely to be religious or to be not religious, compared with unrelated individuals.

Other studies found a strong genetic influence on dental or gum health. That research helped to show that gum disease isn't just caused by bacteria, it also has a genetic component, Segal said.

Another study found that happiness and well-being had a 50 percent genetic influence.

In another study, researchers surveyed the separated twins about how close they felt to their newfound sibling. Among identical twins, 80 percent of those surveyed reported feeling closer and more familiar with their twin than they did to their best friends, suggesting a strong genetic component in the bond between identical twins.

The Minnesota study gave scientists a new understanding of the role of genes and environment on human development, Segal said. In the future, twin studies will aim to link specific genes to specific behaviors, as well as investigate epigenetics what turns genes on or off, she said.

Segal, who wrote a book about the study called "Born Together Reared Apart: The Landmark Minnesota Twins Study" (Harvard University Press, 2012), is now doing a prospective study of Chinese twins raised apart, often in different countries, by adoptive families.

Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitterand Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook& Google+. Original article onLive Science.

Continued here:
Twins Separated at Birth Reveal Staggering Influence of ...

In time, men may have a new way to prevent pregnancy, thanks to the innovative thinking of a Cornell geneticist.

Paula Cohen, professor of genetics in the College of Veterinary Medicine, has won a $100,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a radical approach to contraception an area that has remained static for many years.

Thats whats truly innovative here: We are targeting a stage in the reproductive cycle thats poorly understood, Cohen said.

An expert in the genetics of fertility, Cohen was one of 28 researchers, chosen from 1,600 applicants from around the world, awarded a Grand Challenges Explorations grant, funded by the Gates Foundation. The grant supports innovative thinkers worldwide to explore ideas that can break the mold in how we solve persistent global health and development challenges. Successful projects have the opportunity to receive a follow-on grant of up to $1 million.

Cohens project will look at meiosis, a poorly understood stage of development in which a sperm cells DNA is halved. When the sperm fertilizes an egg which also contains only one half of its chromosomes the resulting embryo is restored to the full number of chromosomes.

Ive always thought that if we can stop those cells from actually getting into meiosis, youd have a really good contraceptive, Cohen said.

There are several reasons why this stage of sperm cell development is a better target for contraception than others, she said.

Traditionally, contraceptives have tried to block the sperm from getting to the egg, with barriers like condoms and spermicide. Thats shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, Cohen said. If a single swimmer gets out, it still has the potential to fertilize an egg, and you cant always prevent that from happening.

Hormonal approaches, like birth control pills, have their own drawbacks. Cohen believes they are not always good for women. And the development of a male birth control pill has always been scorned by men who fear that their libido and/or male sexual characteristics will be diminished.

And contraceptives that target the sperm cell in the testis at a late stage of development might result in mutant sperm and thus birth defects.

Her new approach, centering on the sperm cells entry into meiosis, before it even leaves the testis, offers several benefits.

For example, should one sperm sneak its way through to meiosis, the surveillance machinery present during meiosis would get rid of that solitary cell; in other words, the meiotic process itself would check for escapers. And unlike later stages of sperm cell development, the cells entry into meiosis is accessible to blood-borne factors such as drugs.

The problem is, we know very little about meiosis, because its a very hard stage to target biologically or molecularly, she said. Only recently have we started to gather the tools to be able to look at it. One tool Cohen will use is called CRISPR/Cas9, a genome editing technology that allows genes to be modified permanently and very rapidly.

She has three goals. First, shell try to prove she can get the sperm cells to go into meiosis in culture. Second, shell monitor the cells entry, by engineering what are known as reporter mice, whose cells turn green or red depending on whether or not they have entered meiosis. Third, and as proof-of-principle, shell try to manipulate two genes that are known to affect a cells entry into meiosis.

One gene is required for sperm stem cell maintenance in the testes; if it is deleted, cells rapidly progress into meiosis. The second gene is required for the sperm cell to enter meiosis; it if is blocked, the cells stop developing. So weve got a gene that should accelerate their entry into meiosis and one that should slow it down, Cohen said.

If she can manipulate those genes, that opens the door to the possibility of finding others. There could be hundreds of genes that control this process, she said. We just need to find them and begin to ask whether they are potential contraceptive targets.

This is not the type of science that would qualify for funding through traditional agencies like the National Institutes of Health, Cohen said.

Its very out there, its very risky, and thats what the Gates Foundation is going for, she said. They want you to come up with ideas that are truly revolutionary.

Read more here:
Cohen wins Gates grant for her new take on male contraception - Cornell Chronicle

A Florida college official said Tuesday that women make less money than men because genetically they might lack the skills to negotiate for better pay.

Edward Morton ofthe State University System of Florida made the comments during a board meeting in which members talked about closing the wage gap between male and femalegraduates of the states public university system.Morton, chair of the boards Strategic Planning Committee and a financial adviser from Naples, Fla., said,according to Politico:

Something that were doing in Naples some of our high school students, were actually talking about incorporating negotiating and negotiating skill into curriculum so that the women are given maybe some of it is genetic, I dont know, Im not smart enough to know the difference but I do know that negotiating skills can be something that can be honed, and they can improve. Perhaps we can address than in all of our various curriculums through the introduction of negotiating skill, and maybe that would have a bearing on these things.

Morton apologized for his comment in an email sent to fellow board members shortly after the meeting.

I chose my words poorly. My belief is that women and men should be valued equally in the workplace, he said, adding that the universitys goal is to teach all students how to better negotiate their salaries.

[Utah Republican argues against equal pay for women: Its bad for families and society]

Gov. Rick Scott, who appointed Morton to the board, was among those who quickly criticized Morton for hiscomments. Lauren Schenone, a spokeswoman for Scott, said in a statement that as a father of two daughters, the governorabsolutely does not agree with Mortonscomments.

Gwen Graham, whos seeking the Democratic nomination for governor,tweeted Tuesday night:When I sat at the negotiation table, nothing about my gender or genetics held me back. THIS is why we need more women in state government.

Morton did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday.

Politico reported that during the meeting board members were reviewing areport on gender wage gaps among students who graduated from the university system in 2015.The report, which looked at what students did after graduation and how much theyre earning, found that female graduates from various fieldshave an annual median salary of $37,000, which is $5,500 less than the median salary of male graduates. African American graduates make even less, with an annual median wage of $35,600.

[Here are the facts behind that 79 cent pay gap factoid]

Femalegraduates make less than men even though they account fornearly 60 percent of the graduating class, according to the report.Blacks, Hispanics and whites make up 12 percent, 25 percent and 52 percent of the graduating class, respectively.

During the meeting, Morton said that the wage gap will in some way be self-correcting because the university system has more female graduates than men, according to Politico.

The report also found significant discrepancies in pay among men and women who graduated with the same degrees.The median salaries of women with degrees in biological sciences, business and marketing, communication and journalism, security and protective services, social sciences, and visual and performing arts are from$1,200to $4,400 lower than those of men with similar credentials.The gap among agriculture, liberal arts and physical sciences graduates is even greater from $6,400to $9,400.

Yet the report also found that women with degrees in education, engineering, health professions and psychology make from$500 to$3,100 more than their male counterparts annually.

A history of the long fight for gender wage equality. (Daron Taylor/The Washington Post)

Florida is among more than a dozen states with equal pay laws that haveloopholes that allow employers to continue to pay women less, according to the American Association of University Women.Two states, Alabama and Mississippi, have no equal paylaws. And only a handful California, Illinois, Minnesota, Vermont, Massachusetts and Maryland have strong equal pay laws.

Nationally, womens annual earnings are about 80 percent of what men make, according to a recent report by the association.

The report attributes the wage gap partly to differences in career choices and to the fact that parenting more often puts womens professional lives at a disadvantage than it does mens. Twenty-three percent of mothers left the workforce 10 years after graduation, while 17 percent worked part-time, according to the association. Those numbers among fathers were 1 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

Despite factors such as life choices and parenting, women facepay gaps at every education level and in nearly every line of work, the report said.

READ MORE:

In the federal government, how likely is it that a woman will make more than a man?

The poor just dont want health care: Republican congressman faces backlash over comments

Nobody dies because they dont have access to health care, GOP lawmaker says. He got booed.

Here is the original post:
A Florida higher-ed official said women's genetics may be keeping ... - Washington Post

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