SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
People with blue eyes might have a greater chance of becoming alcoholics, according to a unique new study by genetic researchers at the University of Vermont.
The work, led by Arvis Sulovari, a doctoral student in cellular, molecular and biological sciences, and Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Dawei Li, Ph.D., is the first to make a direct connection between a person's eye color and alcohol dependence. The results of the research, published in the July issue of the American Journal of Medical Genetics: Neuropsychiatric Genetics (Part B), suggest the hope of finding the roots of not only alcoholism, but also many other psychiatric illnesses.
"This suggests an intriguing possibility -- that eye color can be useful in the clinic for alcohol dependence diagnosis," Sulovari says.
The authors found that primarily European Americans with light-colored eyes -- including green, grey and brown in the center -- had a higher incidence of alcohol dependency than those with dark brown eyes, with the strongest tendency among blue-eyed individuals. The study outlines the genetic components that determine eye color and shows that they line up along the same chromosome as the genes related to excessive alcohol use.
Correlation does not equal causation, but more studies are emerging that suggest some traits are linked.
An abstract is available.
Original Submission
(Score: 5, Informative) by Samantha Wright on Friday July 03 2015, @09:17AM
Just to clarify, the researchers are literally claiming genetic linkage, not causal linkage. This means the relevant genes are right next to each other on the chromosome, and hence have an elevated chance of being passed on together. The specific loci involved are mentioned by name in the abstract, and the stats work is both tedious and acceptably sound.
(Score: 1) by Samantha Wright on Friday July 03 2015, @09:19AM
...The only problem with this submission is that it is touted as "unique"; the subject matter may be unusual, but the methodology is about as staid as it gets.
(Score: 3, Funny) by jimshatt on Friday July 03 2015, @10:25AM
(Score: 1) by Samantha Wright on Tuesday July 07 2015, @04:24PM
I forgot about that one. Well put!
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday July 03 2015, @12:11PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 03 2015, @03:03PM
I'm not a biologist, but I believe (perhaps wrongly) that I understand enough to answer anyway.
While the fact that they are near each other is a mere coincidence, I don't think it is likely that they'll move anywhere else. It's like an object file containing unrelated routines, where there are different versions of that object file. When linking, you can decide for a version to link in, but you cannot move parts of that object file to another object file, even if those parts are completely unrelated to anything else in the object file.
(Score: 2) by Joe on Friday July 03 2015, @04:10PM
The proximity of genes to one another can be functionally important. The Hox genes are a great example from developmental biology where the genes are in the same order as their anterior-posterior axis (i.e. antlers, head, body, tail).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hox_gene [wikipedia.org]
In this case it may just be a coincidence that the genes are next to each other, but the fact that they are close together means that they are more likely to be co-inherited.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_linkage [wikipedia.org]
- Joe
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 03 2015, @04:16PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromosomal_crossover [wikipedia.org]
The expression of a given gene probably does matter what other genes are nearby, but as far as I know this isn't thought to be especially important. However, nearby genes tend to be inherited together.
(Score: 1) by Samantha Wright on Tuesday July 07 2015, @04:29PM
In addition to the other replies you received (sorry for taking so long to get back to you on this), chromosomal adjacency can indicate: a shared ancestry between genes (because genes often diverge as a result of duplication, although they can do wildly different things afterwards) or similar regulation patterns (i.e. they get turned on and off together, or share some switches that decide when they get used; this is common in genes that cooperate in a metabolic pathway or are expressed in the same tissue). However, because chromosomes actually take on a 3D shape when they're in use, what we think of as being "nearby" may not be what the cell thinks of being "nearby"; the chromosome may fold so that one gene is deep inside of a pocket, while another is out exposed near the edge; the interior one is much less important to the everyday upkeep of the cell than the exposed one.