From Wikidoc - Reading time: 13 min
Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Henry A. Hoff
{{free media}}Hominins generally have head, facial, and body hair of one or more colors or white hair.
The objective of this learning project is to determine gene suites that may be contributing to or causing white hair, failing to remedy white hair, or failing to maintain a hair color, or colors, other than white.
Under, or over expression, of genes in each suite may alter gene expression sufficiently to add to adverse effects.
Altered expression of genes from each suite may reduce or remedy white hair.
Gene expressions is a suite of genes, and their isoforms, that appear to be biochemically involved in the appearance of a hair color or white hair.
A concept search of the National Institutes of Health NCBI gene database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/) may provide possible initial genes (and associated isoforms and variants) participating in or causing white hair, failing to remedy white hair, or failing to maintain a hair color, or colors, other than white.
"The minimum set of data necessary for a gene record, therefore, is: a unique identifier, or GeneID, assigned by NCBI; a preferred symbol; and either defining sequence information, map information, or official nomenclature from an authority list."[1]
"A unique GeneID is assigned to each new record. There are currently two number generators being used by Gene; one that is assigning values in the range of 7,000,000 – 99,999,999 and another that is assigning values > 100,000,000. Thus the sequence of GeneIDs is expected to have gaps."[1]
GeneID: 348 APOE apolipoprotein E description also contains this: "This gene maps to chromosome 19 in a cluster with the related apolipoprotein C1 and C2 genes."
Although these genes on chromosome 19 may not be expressed when APOE is expressed, they may be close enough or part of the cluster that is activated. Each of these would then be checked against the NASA database and the open literature searchable with Google Scholar or other search engines.
Each gene, or its isoforms, is likely to have upregulation and downregulation transcription factors. As each gene is investigated, these enhancers and inhibitors are noted as discovered.
There are genes on other chromosomes that are similar to each gene being considered. For example, GeneID: 338, Apolipoprotein B, is on chromosome 2. Yet it has been included in studies of rat models for predicting skeletal changes during spaceflight.
"[H]uman DNA has millions of on-off switches and complex networks that control the genes' activities. ... [A]t least 80% of the human genome is active, which opposed the previously held idea that most of the DNA are useless." By Bryan McBournie (September 6, 2012) "Human genome study could unlock the biology of disease", American Scientist.
"DNA contains genes, which hold the instructions for [life. But, these] take up only about 2 percent of the genome ... The human genome is made up of about 3 billion “letters” along strands that make up the familiar double helix structure of DNA. Particular sequences of these letters form genes, which tell cells how to make proteins. People have about 20,000 genes, but the vast majority of DNA lies outside of genes. ... [A]t least three-quarters of the genome is involved in making RNA [...] it appears to help regulate gene activity." By Malcolm Ritter (September 6, 2012) "Far from being mostly junk, human DNA is ‘a jungle’ of complex activity, huge project shows", The Washington Post.
There are "more than 4 million sites where proteins bind to DNA to regulate genetic function, sort of like a switch." Ritter, ibid.
Over 50% of human DNA consists of non-coding repetitive sequences, from T. Wolfsberg, J. McEntyre, and G. Schuler "Guide to the draft human genome" Nature 409 (6822) 824–6 (2001).
Some DNA sequences may encode functional non-coding RNA molecules, which are involved in the regulation of gene expression, from The ENCODE Project Consortium, "Identification and analysis of functional elements in 1% of the human genome by the ENCODE pilot project", Nature 447 (7146) 799–816 (2007).
About 2700 formerly active genes are now pseudogenes. Additional DNA is used in introns and for centromeres and telomeres.
Some introns themselves encode specific proteins or can be further processed after splicing to generate noncoding RNA molecules, by D. Rearick, A. Prakash, A. McSweeny, S.S. Shepard, L. Fedorova, and A. Fedorov, "Critical association of ncRNA with introns", Nucleic Acids Research 39 (6) 2357–66 (March 2011).
Inside each eukaryote nucleus is genetic material (DNA) surrounded by protective and regulatory proteins. These protective and regulatory proteins and the dynamic changes to them that occur during the course of a eukaryote's existence are the epigenome.
There are "nearly 50,000 acetylated sites [punctate sites of modified histones] in the human genome that correlate with active transcription start sites and CpG islands and tend to cluster within gene-rich loci." by Bradley E. Bernstein, Alexander Meissner, and Eric S. Lander, "The Mammalian Epigenome", Cell, (February 23, 2007) 128 (4) 669–81.
Any of the epigenome sites may be influenced during or before transcription to modify gene expressions.
Gene transcription involves gene promoters that may lie upstream of the gene or downstream. The number and variety of gene promoters, enhancers and inhibitors, and other triggers for each gene can by quite large, but each may be an opportunity to alter gene expression as needed.
There are at least 60 specific transcription factors, such as the TATA box, that initiate or contribute to transcription.
"Black-haired individuals were only encountered in the control group, whereas light blond and red hair color were overrepresented in the melanoma group. The distribution of the different eye colors (brown, gray, green, and blue) was not different between the melanoma patients".[2]