Source: science.compulenta.ru
The amazing is nearby: the socioeconomic conditions that accompanied a person in childhood are recorded on DNA using the epigenetic code.
Our DNA «remembers» what kind of childhood we had, say researchers from McGill University (Canada). The socio-economic conditions in which the baby lived can come back to haunt him all his life thanks to the special chemical «s.ues» on the genes — the methyl residues on the DNA.
DNA methylation is an incredibly popular phenomenon among scientists, it is part of the phenomenon of epigenetic inheritance or the epigenetic code. With the help of methylation of the nitrogenous bases that make up DNA, it is possible to change the activity of genes.
The study involved 40 adult males 45 years of age, who, along with several thousand others, took part in a long-term socio-medical experiment; everyone’s quality of life was monitored from early childhood. To study the chemical modifications of DNA, those who had either very bad or very good childhood were selected. For analysis, a section containing more than 20 thousand genes was taken in the DNA itself.
As the authors write in the International Journal of Epidemiology, they were able to find 6 regulatory regions in DNA that were modified in different ways in different people. At the same time, scientists were able to identify methyl «patterns» that accompanied good or bad socioeconomic conditions that a person had in childhood. Moreover, these modifications, according to the researchers, have remained since childhood. 000 regulatory regions carried modifications that appeared in childhood, while «adult» methylation covered only 1 regions.
Curiously, the modified DNA segments that “remembered” childhood were grouped together into clusters. This further convinced the researchers that the conditions in which a person grows and matures are recorded in an epigenetic way. Perhaps our molecular machine draws some conclusions and tries to adapt the body to the conditions in which it will have to exist. DNA methylation thus looks like an extremely long-term adaptation.
There are several diseases that overtake a person in adulthood, but are highly dependent on the conditions in which he grew up. These are problems with coronary vessels, and diabetes, and respiratory diseases. But are these diseases due to «childhood» DNA methylation? Elucidation of this is the task of future research.
The authors specifically emphasize that their results do not answer the question of whether different methylation pathways are beneficial or harmful, or whether the DNA modification pattern can be inherited. The aim of the scientists was to find out whether socioeconomic conditions in early childhood affect the molecular «punctuation marks» in our DNA. And the answer to this question was in the affirmative.
Adapted from McGill University.