New genetic culprit found for early progressive hair loss

People with hypotrichosis simplex have an ordinary measure of hair after birth, however they begin losing it in early adolescence. This misfortune keeps on advancing with age.

In spite of the fact that specialists realize this is an inherited condition, up until this point, they have just recognized few of the potential hereditary guilty parties.

One of these is a change in the APCDD1 gene, which meddles with a flagging pathway that impacts cell capacity and recovery. 

Presently, scientists from the University Hospital of Bonn in Germany, in a joint effort with associates from different organizations in Germany and Switzerland, have surrounded another quality that assumes a critical job in this uncommon kind of male pattern baldness.

Their investigation, the discoveries of which show up in The American Journal of Human Genetics, demonstrate that transformations in the LSS quality drive the components that portray hypotrichosis simplex.

Read the full article with the links 1 and 2

This Just In: Study Shows That Boys are Stupider

A recent article published in the New York Times explored the correlation between being male and dying by falling into natural traps.  This study was conducted by multiple universities around the world on woolly mammoths from Siberia and South Dakota.  The study consisted of analyzing genes to determine gender.  In order to make sure that the results were precise and accurate, the researchers analyzed the genes from bones, teeth and tusks.  All results concluded that more than half of the woolly mammoths that died were male.  All the woolly mammoths were found buried on what was described as "natural traps."  Once males hit maturity between the ages of 14-16, they would leave their mothers and either wander off alone or find a newly made group consisting of young males that had just hit maturity.  Scientists hypothesized that the large number of male mammoths that died was a result of the young males being inexperienced and finding themselves in dangerous situations without the help of their experienced mother.  These studies did not analyze other parts of the mammoths' genomes, which could possibly be the study's largest downfall.  By omitting the analysis of other genes, the researchers cannot be as certain as they can be that these deaths were solely based on the lack of experience in young males.  This research is very important in arguments with men and boys because it allows women to cite their sources and have a scientific basis for their arguments.  Men and boys, on the other hand, do not have scientific evidence for anything.  Because their men and boys, and look where that got these woolly mammoths. Here is another article from a different news outlet that is reporting on the same research so you all know that I'm not lying about this.

An Overriding Influence: Sex determination

When expecting a baby, the most frequent question that pops into the expecting-parents minds is: Is it a girl, or a boy?

At a certain stage in the trimester, doctors can usually give a confident answer to that question. However, 1 in 1,000 babies are born with some gender ambiguity. Many doctors are unable to determine the sex of the child when it looks like the baby has a penis but there is little or no scrotum. This confuses doctors because they are unsure if thy are seeing a boy with undescended tests, or a girl with an enlarged clitoris. Some newborns are even born with external genitals of a boy but have the female ovaries inside.

Excitingly however, researchers are getting closer to determining the gene that can disrupt the normal development of male genitals. Knowing this information helped discover that the action of that gene is responsible for reversing the sex of the fetus, from male testes and a penis, to a vagina and ovaries.

This gene, the maleness gene, is called the SRY gene. It's found on the X chromosome, and it is powerful enough to override the Y chromosome, and take its place. However, when studied in patients there were many contradictions to what they thought they knew. May scientists are now realizing that sex determination is a lot more complicated than they thought.

Gender Determined by a Fingerprint

According to Mr. Halamek and his colleagues,  gender can be determined by an individual's fingerprint.  This is based on the fact that a certain amino acid is found to have levels twice as high in the sweat of women.  Therefore, by testing the levels of residual amino acids in a fingerprint it is possible to conclude whether the person was male or female.  The researchers are in the process of developing additional fingerprint processing where certain criteria about a person can be determined, such as, whether they are young or old, male or female, and their specific ethnicity.  Fingerprint analysis has been used in forensics for years, but never like this.  The author does state however, that Mr. Halamek says these tests "could not replace DNA tests, which are reliable but also time-consuming and expensive".

The fact that women and men different in this little details such as a specific amino acid is quite amazing.  And if we can use these little genetic differences to help "solve" crimes etc, this can be a great step forward in forensics.  I think as the author said this shouldn't become something that replaces DNA tests, however it could become a quick preliminary test when quick information about a crime or someone in general is needed.  Especially if they make these tests simple kits that can be performed without needing advanced lab equipment and such.  

Original Article 

Loss of Y chromosome can explain shorter life expectancy in men.

A recent study at Uppsala University attempted to find any correlation from loss of the Y chromosome to a shorter life span and mortality from cancer. Seeing that it is apparent in many studies that men are more likely than women to die from almost any cancer or disease it would follow that any such correlation would most likely have a genetic link to it. Alterations of the DNA our body cells occur throughout our life which tends to lead to cancerous cell accumulating. The study analyzed the DNA of blood samples belonging to 1600 men. They found that most of the genetic alteration in men came from a loss of the Y chromosome in a portion of the men's white blood cells. The cells actually were missing a whole chromosome. The group of men were studied for several years and the study found that there was indeed a correlation between the loss of the y chromosome and the likely hood of developing cancer. In fact the men who had lost their chromosome had lower chances of survival irrespective of their cause of death. While the Y chromosome is only present in men, so far the only genes in the Y chromosome have been associated with sex determination and sperm production. Because the Y chromosome has also been linked to have a role in tumor suppression this maybe the most likely reason as to why men get cancers more often than women.

This article makes me wonder how mammals developed the xx and xy chromosomal gender linkage over millions of years. The mere fact that ones gender is dictated by a single chromosome just shows the toils of evolution. In some birds it is known that the males have the same chromsomes zz while the females have zw. Gender is a cruel joke evolution plays on genes.

Main article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140428121205.htm

Related article: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29703455

The Mystery of Hypertension

It seems that hypertension is on the minds of most people upon entering their primary physician's office. High blood pressure fits in right up there next to cholesterol level and body weight on the list of everyday health concerns. In an article found in the Health and Wellness section of Tree.com called The Genetics of Hypertension, a few points are made that suggest some of the likely causes of high blood pressure. Some of these points may help clear up some confusion or settle the minds of those who may be worried about their own risk. The main question at hand here is: are there steps I can take to ensure that my blood pressure stays at a healthy level, or is it simply written in my genetic blueprint? The answer is yes. To both questions, actually.

Researchers have provided extensive data showing that people of African descent are more at risk of developing hypertension than people of Caucasian descent.They are also at higher risk of developing cardiac conditions due to a higher blood pressure, such as heart attack or stroke. Also, males are more at risk of developing high blood pressure than females of the same age. That said, females are also fully capable of having high blood pressure as well.



It's a commonly known statistic that people are more likely to develop any illness or condition when it is present in family history. Further, smoking, drinking in excess, and leading a sedentary lifestyle is proven to raise blood pressure no matter how clean of a family history one has or what gender of ethnicity they are. On the other hand, leading a healthy lifestyle can lower the risk of people that are in genetic danger of developing hypertension.

Geneticists have already located at least three variants on the kidney gene G protein coupled receptor kinase Type 4 (GRK4) than show relevant accompaniment with essential hypertension. Essential hypertension is the occurrence of high blood pressure with out any significant medical cause. It is likely that advancements will be made that will make possible the early detection, better treatment and possible gene therapy of patients with hypertension.