Thursday, December 4, 2014

The African Genome Variation Project

Through the African Genome Variation Project, scientists have completed a comprehensive study of genetic diversity in Sub-Saharan Africa. This project analyzed the DNA of 1,800 people living across Africa for genetic risk factors for disease. Most of these types of projects and research have been done in Europe while little has been known about Africa, the most genetically diverse region in the world.
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The researchers were curious to understand if there was underlying genetic susceptibility that caused some diseases. They were not able to get the information they needed since Africa has a large variation in genomes and has barely been genetically studied. This lead to UK and US researchers collecting genetic material from people in Africa and the researchers found some different variations with region. For example, South African people are less likely to carry a genetic mutation that protects from malaria. Also Africans are more likely to have a greater risk of high blood pressure compared to Europeans.
The most surprising thing that researchers learned was that Africans are not as diverse as researchers expected. This is a good thing because it means large scale trials can be used to understand disease susceptibility. This project will also be able to help scientists more clearly understand diseases and why people are more likely to get certain diseases. Scientists will also be able to learn about more ancient migration patterns in early humans.
I found it surprising that not much genetic information has been gathered in Africa. There should be projects like this all around the world to help understand more about humans. It will also be extremely interesting if links are found been certain genes and diseases since everyone was panicking over ebola 2 weeks ago. This type of project will be helpful in the medical and genetic field.

Article: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30318291

1 comment:

  1. I would make an assumption that the reason for variations with genetic materal from US, Europe, and Africa is due to the variations in location as well. It would kind of be like the pigmentation with skin color and area where people live.

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