From that mouse and from the fat to the dark-haired and the thin

2003/08/06 Kortabitarte Egiguren, Irati - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Biologia

These two researchers, after working with the mouse Agouti Yellow, have seen that the members of this variety have an additional part of DNA when we are Agouti. Hence the descendants are deceived and born. However, taking vitamin B12, folic acid, choline and betaña before, during and after pregnancy has shown that black and thin offspring are born. Therefore, these substances, which are part of the diet during pregnancy, manage to silence the Agouti gene by binding carbon and hydrogen molecules. In fact, this process called DNA methylation is widely used by cells in the processes of gene expression and silencing, since the cell controls by methylating the DNA which genes should be expressed and which should not be expressed; it associates methyl to genes that do not want it.

After this experiment in the mouse, researchers want to propose methods to investigate the methylation that occurs in human tissues. In fact, in humans, 40% of the DNA chain is methylated and there are many methylated genes, including the p16 cancer gene.

In short, the research carried out with the mice of this singular variety has served to highlight the influence and importance of external agents in the expression of genes.

This study has great importance in the impact that nutrition can have on the development of the embryo, among others. And it can give a lot to say, even in the case of cloning. In fact, in cloning there is a particularly difficult and essential process, the reprogramming of somatic cells, in which the methylation of DNA plays an important role, since depending on it some genes will be expressed or not.