Disease Risk Depends on Which Parent a DNA Variant Is Inherited From

[steven johnson]

Here's something that might make DNA testing for disease susceptibility tricky.

Icelandic biologists have discovered that the genetic risk of several common diseases, like Type 2 diabetes and cancer, can depend on which parent a DNA variant is inherited from.

Using an extensive genealogy that includes almost all the present population of Iceland and many in previous generations, the Reykjavik company DeCode Genetics managed to distinguish which chromosomes came from the father and which from the mother in some 40,000 people.

Decode scientists have found one such instance. They report in Friday’s Nature that a DNA variant increases a person’s risk of Type 2 diabetes by 30 percent if inherited from the father, but reduces the risk by 10 percent if comes from the mother.

DeCode found that five of seven variants tested made different contributions to disease depending on the parent of origin. In most cases the effect was of differing degrees of severity, depending on the parent involved.

Disease Risk Depends on Which Parent a DNA Variant Is Inherited From

[Rhiannon12866]

1. K&R. This is fascinating and so very important!

Can't wait to read more results on this! :wow:

[aquart]

2. Weird. Why?

[Tumbulu]

3. in plant breeding one is always told it makes no difference which parent

one uses as the mother line (we can often choose in plant breeding), but I had observed differences and wondered about this.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Though I'm no botanist...

I *have* heard from people who work in genetics that some characteristics of flowering plants can vary according to which 'parent' plant provides a gene.

[Tumbulu]

6. I bet nowadays they are more knowledgeable about this

I was at University a long time ago.

[LeftishBrit]

4. Very interesting

It has been known for some time that some genetic abnormalities can vary in their effects depending on which parent they are inherited from. Notably, an abnormality on chromosome 15 inherited from the father causes a disorder called Prader-Willi syndrome, while the same abnormality inherited from the mother causes a quite different disorder called Angelman syndrome. However, this seems to be the first piece of evidence that the same sort of thing can apply to more 'normal' genetic variations, and can have such effects on *risk* for common diseases.