The food you eat may change your genes for life

"IT SOUNDS like science fiction: simply swallowing a pill, or eating a specific food supplement, could permanently change your behaviour for the better, or reverse diseases such as schizophrenia, Huntington's or cancer.

Yet such treatments are looking increasingly plausible. In the latest development, normal rats have been made to behave differently just by injecting them with a specific amino acid. The change to their behaviour was permanent. The amino acid altered the way the rat's genes were expressed, raising the idea that drugs or dietary supplements might permanently halt the genetic effects that predispose people to mental or physical illness."

www.newscientist.com...

This short article does indicate that amino acid changes can affect your DNA for life and that ingestion of certian groups can change your bodies makeup. The old phrase "you are what you eat" holds true. So changes in amino acids in nature through mans ignorance may have caused many diseases "cancer", HIV, etc to accelerate.

Originally posted by thermopolis
This short article does indicate that amino acid changes can affect your DNA for life and that ingestion of certian groups can change your bodies makeup. The old phrase "you are what you eat" holds true. So changes in amino acids in nature through mans ignorance may have caused many diseases "cancer", HIV, etc to accelerate.

The article indicates that environmental factors can influence the expression of genes. This has been well known for... well a long time. Methylation is not a permanent state. Methylated genes can be de-methylated and reactivated. Epigenetic changes such as this are merely changes in expression patterns, and don't affect the structure or sequence of DNA information. While epigenetic changes, including methylation can be passed on to offspring, the 'daughter progeny' can reactivate previously silenced genes. Epigenetic change is not considered - in general - to be permanent.

"Once a methylation pattern is established, it is clonally inherited using a maintenance methylasse that copies the methylation pattern on the parental DNA strand to the newly replicating strand. About 1% of the genes do not obey Mendel’s genetic rules being expressed monoallelically in a parent-of-origin fashion. "

www.isrvma.org...

1% over several generations can be a significant differential. A gain we are sampling a very, very small protion of the genetic universe between creation and now with far too many unknowns.

SOYLANT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!!! Sorry couldn't resist.

Originally posted by thermopolis
1% over several generations can be a significant differential. A gain we are sampling a very, very small protion of the genetic universe between creation and now with far too many unknowns.

Please familiarize yourself with the term monoallelic expression, then consider that phrase in the context of what you're saying. Yes a change in 1% of the genome even within an organism is hugely significant. But that's not what this says. The genome isn't changing, the expression pattern is. Expression is often very plastic... that's why cells have demethylase genes.

BTW, not trying to discount the importance of environmentally induced epigenetic changes... just trying to be clear on the science.

Originally posted by mattison0922
Please familiarize yourself with the term monoallelic expression

Monoallelic expression and methylation of imprinted genes in human and mouse embryonic germ cell lineages.
Random and imprinted monoallelic expression
monoallelic expression is regulated in two distinct ways

and especially this looks helpful:
Functions of Eukaryotic DNA Methylation

Another function of methylation is to provide an heritable signal which has no direct effect upon transcription[...]Imprinted genes display a monoallelic expression restricted to the paternal allele (for some imprinted genes) or the maternal allele (for some others). The imprint occurs in the germline and has been shown in several cases to be associated with the uniparental methylation of a small DNA region lying close to the imprinted gene, called the “imprinting box.” Several observations indicate that methylation acts as a signal that can be dissociated from the effect upon gene expression[...]The allele, which will stay unexpressed when monoallelic expression is set up, can be the allele which underwent methylation of its imprinting box. This can be simply explained if, after implantation, methylation expanded to the promoter region of the imprinted gene, hence preventing its expression. However, the other situation where the expressed gene is the one that underwent methylation of its imprinting box is also observed. In this situation, both alleles stay unexpressed during early development, and the loss of the imprinting signal in MTase deficient cells leads to a failure of expression of the imprinted gene, resulting in both alleles being silenced. This means that, in this case, the methylation of the imprinting signal is required to trigger gene expression.

Also, I just read a paper about yeast that showed differntial patterns of gene activation depending upon what nutrients the yeast was deprived of, and certainly there is a lot of research on that sort of thing.


Intersting idea in terms of therapy tho, to induce methylation via a supplement.

Now the team has shown that a food supplement can have the same effect on well-reared rats at 90 days old - well into adulthood. The researchers injected L-methionine, a common amino acid and food supplement, into the brains of well-reared rats. The amino acid methylated the glucocorticoid gene, and the animals' behaviour changed.

How the heck did it just affect that one gene tho?

Here's the paper, should make intersting reading:
Weaver, Ian C. G et al. Epigenetic programming by maternal behavior, Nature Neuroscience. 2004; 7(8): 847-854 (webpage with link for pdf, open for 14 days)

Originally posted by Nygdan
How the heck did it just affect that one gene tho?

Nygdan... good info

It's funny... free amino acids do in fact seem to have effects not exhibited by their peptide bound bretheren... Aspartic acid has been shown to interact with neural cells in particular. It seems extraordinary to me too... but apparently there's a precedent for it.

GREAT stuff everyone. Thanks.

IMO - the concept of environmentally induced epigenetic changes is critical, especially in light of current (mis)understandings of "genetics" - and the trend to use assisted suicide as a solution to society's many woes. A misapprehension of the science, and a BIG mistake, imo.

Originally posted by soficrow
GREAT stuff everyone. Thanks.

IMO - the concept of environmentally induced epigenetic changes is critical, especially in light of current (mis)understandings of "genetics" - and the trend to use assisted suicide as a solution to society's many woes. A misapprehension of the science, and a BIG mistake, imo.

"If the PrP Gene coded for a protein that, when mutated, facilitated infection by a ubiquitous virus, the mutation would lead to viral infection of the brain. Then injection of brain extracts from the mutant animal would spread the infection to another host. Yet in the absence of any evidence of a virus, this hypothesis looks to be untenable. In addition to showing that a protein can multiply and cause disease without help from nucleic acids, we have gained insight into how scrapie PrP propagates in cells. Many details remain to be worked out, but one aspect appears quite clear: the main difference between normal PrP and scrapie PrP is conformational."

www.geocities.com...

Virus, malformed amino acids, prions,

In the scifi world on "StarGate-1" prions would be called "nano-bots" problem is Prions are Real nano-bots...................

Bush in 2002 took prions into the "blackopps" because a prion can "in theory" be targeted to a specific genetic "pool" and associated disease. Let me be clear. Prions could be designed to target specific ethnic groups and the associated disease can be passed down the generations. The ultimate "silent" genocide machine................

Originally posted by thermopolis

Originally posted by soficrow
GREAT stuff everyone. Thanks.

IMO - the concept of environmentally induced epigenetic changes is critical, especially in light of current (mis)understandings of "genetics" - and the trend to use assisted suicide as a solution to society's many woes. A misapprehension of the science, and a BIG mistake, imo.

Virus, malformed amino acids, prions,

In the scifi world on "StarGate-1" prions would be called "nano-bots" problem is Prions are Real nano-bots...................

Nano-bots are real too - and they now can self-replicate. I am trying to find out if the replication process is mechanical or biological. If it's biological, it likely involves prions. Also, whatever the replication process, nanobots could be used as vehicles for prion transmission.

Bush in 2002 took prions into the "blackopps" because a prion can "in theory" be targeted to a specific genetic "pool" and associated disease. Let me be clear. Prions could be designed to target specific ethnic groups and the associated disease can be passed down the generations. The ultimate "silent" genocide machine................

Interesting isn't it. Fits with my research too.

BUT - prions aren't that easy to control - and they create new strains on exposure to new proteins/cell types. So once they're out, they're out, and they can't be controlled. No one is immune or protected from potential new strains - genetically or otherwise.



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[edit on 21-11-2005 by soficrow]