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Subject:
From:
Sukie Crandall <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:50:55 -0400
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http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/genes/

Full transcript:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3413_genes.html

Although told mostly from a human perspective this Public Broadcasting
program applies to all living things, including ferrets. Some of the
things mentioned can be human specific but the TYPES of changes and
mechanisms seen may well appear more widely, even if they are expressed
differently.

So here are a few notes that I took:

The program began with identical twins, one of whom is autistic (later
getting into epigenetic differences), and other identical twins with
differences such as ones where only one gets a malignancy and the other
continues to remain fine.

Then it explains what epigenetic is: That there are proteins overlying
the genome and if those proteins are tightly bound then the genes can
not express themselves. Epi means "above" and genome is obvious.

The genetics are the same from tissue to tissue and can change over
time, but not a huge amount usually by reproductive years. On the other
hand, the epigenome is how the genes communicate with the outside world
and the epigenome varies from tissue type to tissue type, varies among
environments, varies across time in the individual, and can even affect
later generations and often not in good ways.

We've all read about agouti mice and soy, how giving a soy compound
during pregnancy results in offspring who are thinner, darker in fur,
and far less prone to diabetes and heart disease. Those study results
have been replicated by giving sufficient B-12 and Folic Acid to
pregnant mice, with healthier offspring that way, too.

BUT, don't take that to mean that hefty nutrition during pregnancy
is good and you will see why a little later. It should be the right
nutrition but not overdone.

Then they went into how malignancy happen more with old cells because
the more replications that occur the older the cells are, and the more
chance there is for mistakes to creep in with each replications, then
mentioned that since malignant cells are constantly replicating without
control they are downright ancient. The more they replicate the worse
they get in changes.

Some locations can suppress malignancies. We've all read about those
on the FHL and elsewhere. Some of those genetic locations need to be
turned off to have the suppressant effect. The program next went on to
show "Diplomacy" treatment of a malignancy that had been untreatable.
It is an epigenetic treatment which is not a cure but a control
approach.

To illustrate one case in which environment molded the epigenome and
that effect was passed down through generations they went into a study
of diabetes and mortality rates in people in a location which had
experienced famine in the grandparents' generation. The effect was only
carried down the paternal line to the current generation but they do
not know why. On the female side the effect happened as a fetus and in
their case the ones who experienced famine as fetuses had grandchildren
who died earlier. The paternal grandfather, though, had a different
situation. If the paternal grandfather was well fed at about age 10
(late childhood in general) then the grandchildren of that male were
dramatically more likely to develop diabetes or to die early, or both.

Eggs begin development earlier than sperm which may be why the age
difference shows up.

***** Now, many hypotheses involving insulinoma in ferrets have been
derived from diabetes work or diabetes hypotheses in other animals.
Is there a possibility that allowing breeder ferrets to be TOO well
nourished or even obese is setting up later generations for insulinoma
through an epigenetic mechanism similar to the one where the
grandparents' nutrient exposure (fetal for females, mid to late kithood
for males if the timing pattern is the same for ferrets)  *****

In another rodent study fetal pesticide exposure was found to cause
epigenetic changes what appeared in 85% of the animals for every
generation afterward that they traced it (many generations). This is
in keeping with some current studies on things like fetal exposure to
cigarette smoke which appears to relate to some health problems for
many generations afterward.

Although ferrets were never mentioned the mechanisms are the same,
and since the proportions and rates of some ferret diseases are so
different now than they were 20 years ago, and one thing documented
in a different species (ours) is that can have an epigenetic trigger
in a grandparent is endocrinological (diabetes) then perhaps perhaps
it makes sense to try to figure what things may be done, not only in
current generations but in previous ones, which may at least "help"
set up our ferrets for certain diseases, and maybe it really makes
sense to avoid ferrets who as kits, or as fetuses were around things
like second-hand smoke, or whose parents or grandparents were, and to
avoid breeding any male ferrets who were over-nourished (chubs) during
kithood.

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)

[Posted in FML 6645]


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