Environmental Effects on Gene Expression Phenotype Have Regional Biases in the Human Genome

Overview

Journal Genetics

Publisher Oxford University Press

Specialty Genetics

Date 2007 Jan 24

PMID 17237506

Citations 22

Authors

Jung Kyoon Choi

Sang Cheol Kim

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Phenotypic discordance between monozygotic twins, such as a difference in disease susceptibility, implicates the role of the environment in determining phenotype. To assess genomewide environmental effects on "gene expression phenotype," we employed a published microarray data set for twins. We found that variations in expression phenotypes between monozygotic twins have biases in their chromosomal locations. They also showed a strong inverse correlation with gene density. Genomic regions of low gene density were environmentally sensitive, containing genes involved in response to external signals, cell differentiation, and development, etc. Genetic factors were found to make no contribution to the observed regional biases, stressing the role of epigenetics. We propose that epigenetic modifications might occur more frequently in heterochromatic, gene-poor regions in response to environmental signals while gene-rich regions tend to remain in an active chromatin configuration for the constitutive expression of underlying genes.

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