Genetic Endowment Research Articles

The role of gene–environment interaction in the formation of risk attitudes

Understanding the formation of risk preferences is crucial for elucidating the roots of economic, social, and health inequalities. However, this area remains inadequately explored. This study employs a risk preference measure directly linked to the labor market to examine whether previous experiences with high unemployment rates influence current risk decision-making among the elderly, and whether this impact varies by genotype. The findings indicate that individuals with low genetic predispositions for risk tolerance are more significantly influenced by historical fluctuations in unemployment rates than those with high genetic predispositions for risk tolerance. Consequently, this paper identifies genetic endowment as a crucial moderating factor that shapes how past experiences impact current decision-making processes. This disparity in how past experiences shape risk preferences based on genetic predisposition may further amplify inequalities in health, wealth, income, and other outcomes associated with risk preferences.

Corruption and Population Health

Population health is an approach to health with the goal of improving the health of an entire human population which includes health outcomes, patterns of health determinants, and policies and interventions. As the population of countries increases, it creates scarcity of resources that will enhance population health. In the midst of this scarce resources’ corruption heightens the unavailability of such resources. High levels of corruption impoverish populations, increase inequality, and cause health status to deteriorate, especially among the most vulnerable population groups. The main determinants of health include: Income and social status, employment and working conditions, education and literacy, childhood experiences, physical environments, Social supports and coping skills, and healthy behaviours. Access to health services, biology and genetic endowment, gender, culture and race / racism are also determinants of health. In absence of corruption there is health equity, which helps to reduce inequalities and seek to promote opportunities and conditions that is conducive to health for all. Addressing corruption complements the right to health, and promotes health equity in order to achieve population health of the people.

Interpreting disease genome-wide association studies and polygenetic risk scores given eligibility and study design considerations.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been helpful in identifying genetic variants predicting cancer risk and providing new insights into cancer biology. Increasing use of genetically informed care, as well as genetically informed prevention and treatment strategies, have also drawn attention to some of the inherent limitations of cancer genetic data. Specifically, genetic endowment is lifelong. However, those recruited into cancer studies tend to be middle-aged or older people, meaning the exposure most likely starts before recruitment, as opposed to exposure and recruitment aligning, as in a trial or a target trial. Studies in survivors can be biased as a result of depletion of the susceptibles, here specifically due to genetic vulnerability and the cancer of interest or a competing risk. In addition, including prevalent cases in a case-control study will make the genetics of survival with cancer look harmful (Neyman bias). Here, we describe ways of designing GWAS to maximize explanatory power and predictive utility, by reducing selection bias due to only recruiting survivors and reducing Neyman bias due to including prevalent cases alongside using other techniques, such as selection diagrams, age-stratification, and Mendelian randomization, to facilitate GWAS interpretability and utility.

The Explosive Training Supports the Tribal Volleyball Players for Active Participation

Today the sporting world has become extremely competitive. Every person who indulges in training for a sport will not necessarily achieve the top performance or become a champion. It is rightly said that the champions in the field of sports are born and then groomed in later life. Thus, the genetic endowment of a sports person cannot be neglected while selecting a talent. This paper shows the clear outline and nutshell of how the explosive training will support the Tribal Volleyball players' active participation. It is an empirical study to get an idea of the effect of explosive training. Scholars Middle East Pub

Internal carbon recycling by heterotrophic prokaryotes compensates for mismatches between phytoplankton production and heterotrophic consumption.

Molecular observational tools are useful for characterizing the composition and genetic endowment of microbial communities but cannot measure fluxes, which are critical for the understanding of ecosystems. To overcome these limitations, we used a mechanistic inference approach to estimate dissolved organic carbon (DOC) production and consumption by phytoplankton operational taxonomic units and heterotrophic prokaryotic amplicon sequence variants and inferred carbon fluxes between members of this microbial community from Western English Channel time-series data. Our analyses focused on phytoplankton spring and summer blooms, as well as bacteria summer blooms. In spring blooms, phytoplankton DOC production exceeds heterotrophic prokaryotic consumption, but in bacterial summer blooms heterotrophic prokaryotes consume three times more DOC than produced by the phytoplankton. This mismatch is compensated by heterotrophic prokaryotic DOC release by death, presumably from viral lysis. In both types of summer blooms, large amounts of the DOC liberated by heterotrophic prokaryotes are reused through internal recycling, with fluxes between different heterotrophic prokaryotes being at the same level as those between phytoplankton and heterotrophic prokaryotes. In context, internal recycling accounts for approximately 75% and 30% of the estimated net primary production (0.16 vs 0.22 and 0.08 vs 0.29μmoll-1 d-1) in bacteria and phytoplankton summer blooms, respectively, and thus represents a major component of the Western English Channel carbon cycle. We have concluded that internal recycling compensates for mismatches between phytoplankton DOC production and heterotrophic prokaryotic consumption, and we encourage future analyses on aquatic carbon cycles to investigate fluxes between heterotrophic prokaryotes, specifically internal recycling.

Testing for treatment effect heterogeneity: Educational reform, genetic endowments, and family background

Testing for treatment effect heterogeneity: Educational reform, genetic endowments, and family background

Genetic endowments for social capital: An investigation accounting for genetic nurturing effects

Despite social capital having been shown to be important for health and well-being, relatively little research has examined genetic determinants. Genetic endowments for education have been shown to influence human, financial, and health capital, but few studies have examined social capital, and those conducted have yet to account for genetic nurturing. We used the Add-Health data to study the effect of genetic endowments on individual social capital using the education polygenic score (PGS). We used sibling fixed effects models and controlled for the family environment to account for genetic nurturing. After accounting for the family environment, we found moderately large significant associations between the education PGS and volunteering, but associations with religious service attendance and number of friends were completely attenuated in sibling fixed effects models. These findings highlight that genetic endowments play an important role in influencing volunteering and the importance of accounting for genetic nurturing.

Productivity and slaughter performance of pigs using a mineral feed additive

For the organization of pork production, it is necessary to create a strong fodder base that would provide the physiological needs of pigs in accordance with a reasonable level of productivity. The main method of growth stimulation and realization of the genetic endowments of animals is the use of biologically active feed additives in their feeding. The study of mineral nutrition of animals deserves special attention. Therefore, the aim of the research was to determine the influence of the mineral supplement “Mintrex Cu” on productivity and slaughter performance in pigs. Mineral feed supplement “Mintrex Cu” is a copper chelate of methionine hydroxy analog with a well-defined chemical structure, which contains 18 % copper and 79.5 % methionine activity. The protocol and procedures used in this study were ethically compliant with Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Protection of Animals, as well as the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Animals from Cruelty”. The experiment lasted 55 days. 24 heads of large white pigs were selected for the experiment. Formed two similar groups of 12 goals each. During the formation of groups, live weight, growth, age, sex and breed were taken into account. Animals were kept in group pens of 12 heads, according to the number of experimental groups, in a typical piggery for raising young animals. A control group of pigs was fed compound feed that provided their nutritional needs. The experimental group additionally consumed the mineral supplement “Mintrex Cu” in a dose of 280 g/t of feed. It was found that the additional use of the mineral feed additive “Mintrex Cu” increases the live weight of pigs of the 2nd experimental group by 4.8 % (Р ˂ 0.05), compared to the control group. In addition, it was recorded that the preservation of pigs increased in the 2nd experimental group by 2.0 % against the control. The use of a mineral supplement in the feeding of pigs of the 2nd group, feed consumption per 1 kg of growth is reduced by 14.2 % compared to the control group. It was established that the pigs of the 2nd group, which consumed the mineral supplement “Mintrex Cu” had a higher pre-slaughter live weight by 5.6 % (Р ˂ 0.05) and slaughter weight by 6.5 % (Р ˂ 0.05) and carcass weight by 8.2 % (Р ˂ 0.05) compared to the control indicator.

Intergenerational longitudinal associations between parental reading/musical traits, infants' auditory processing, and later phonological awareness skills.

The intergenerational transmission of language/reading skills has been demonstrated by evidence reporting that parental literacy abilities contribute to the prediction of their offspring's language and reading skills. According to the "Intergenerational Multiple Deficit Model," literacy abilities of both parents are viewed as indicators of offspring's liability for literacy difficulties, since parents provide offspring with genetic and environmental endowment. Recently, studies focusing on the heritability of musical traits reached similar conclusions. The "Musical Abilities, Pleiotropy, Language, and Environment (MAPLE)" framework proposed that language/reading and musical traits share a common genetic architecture, and such shared components have an influence on the heritable neural underpinnings of basic-level skills underlying musical and language traits. Here, we investigate the intergenerational transmission of parental musical and language-related (reading) abilities on their offspring's neural response to a basic auditory stimulation (neural intermediate phenotype) and later phonological awareness skills, including in this complex association pattern the mediating effect of home environment. One-hundred and seventy-six families were involved in this study. Through self-report questionnaires we assessed parental reading abilities and musicality, as well as home literacy and musical environment. Offspring were involved in a longitudinal study: auditory processing was measured at 6 months of age by means of a Rapid Auditory Processing electrophysiological paradigm, and phonological awareness was assessed behaviorally at 5 years of age. Results reveal significant correlations between parents' reading skills and musical traits. Intergenerational associations were investigated through mediation analyses using structural equation modeling. For reading traits, the results revealed that paternal reading was indirectly associated with children's phonological awareness skills via their electrophysiological MisMatch Response at 6 months, while maternal reading was directly associated with children's phonological awareness. For musical traits, we found again that paternal musicality, rather than maternal characteristics, was associated with children's phonological phenotypes: in this case, the association was mediated by musical environment. These results provide some insight about the intergenerational pathways linking parental reading and musical traits, neural underpinnings of infants' auditory processing and later phonological awareness skills. Besides shedding light on possible intergenerational transmission mechanisms, this study may open up new perspectives for early intervention based on environmental enrichment.

The Fault in Our Stars: Molecular Genetics and Information Technology Use

There is a growing interest in understanding the role of genetics in explaining heterogeneity in behaviors, including those related to information systems (IS). The majority of the recent genetics research focuses on searching the entire genome in genome-wide association studies (GWASs) to link DNA to human traits. The results of GWASs can be used on datasets to compute a measure of genetic propensity known as a polygenic score, or PGS. PGSs are widely viewed as the future of genetics research. We conducted an exploratory study, in the context of information technology (IT) use, to examine if the PGS approach can be used to better understand the role of genetics in IS research. Consistent with our hypotheses, genetic endowments associated with Educational Attainment and General Cognition positively predict technology use, and genetic endowments associated with Neuroticism, Depressive Symptoms, Myocardial Infarction, and Coronary Artery Disease negatively predict technology use more than half a century later (genetic endowments are established at conception and our sample consists of individuals aged 50 to 80). Many of the characteristics known to be associated with heterogeneity in IT use (e.g., trust, education) appear to be mediators linking PGSs to IT use. Nonetheless, a number of PGSs maintain meaningful direct effects.

Decoupling genetics from attainments: The role of social environments

This paper examines the extent to which growing up in a socially mobile environment might decouple genetic endowments related to educational attainment with actual attainments. Many models of intergenerational transmission of advantage contain both a transmission channel through endowments (i.e. genetics) from parents to children as well as from parental investments and “luck”. Indeed, many scholars consider the intergenerational links due to the transmission of genetically-based advantage to place a lower bound on plausible levels of social mobility—genetics may be able to “lock in” advantage across generations. This paper explores this idea by using genetic measurements in the Health and Retirement Study to examine potential interactions between social environments and genetics related to attainments. The results suggest evidence of gene environment interactions: children born in high mobility states have lower genetic penetrance—the interaction between state-level mobility and the polygenic score for education is negative. These results suggest a need to incorporate gene-environment interactions in models of attainment and mobility and to pursue the mechanisms behind the interactions.

Impact of Paternal Depression on Child Neurodevelopmental Outcomes and Disorders.

Objective: To explore paternal depression (before, during, and after pregnancy) and its association with neurodevelopmental disorders in children. Data Sources: A systematic, English-language review was conducted in PubMed, PubMed Central, MEDLINE, Web of Science, BIOSIS Previews, and SciELO. All relevant literature published from inception to March 31, 2021, was included. The MeSH terms used in the search included paternal behavior, fathers, or father-child relations in the context of depression, postpartum depression, and neurodevelopmental disorders. Data Extraction: The PICOS (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes, and Study design) tool was used to enhance reporting of the findings. Twenty-six articles were included in the review. Results: Paternal depression during the perinatal period resembles maternal perinatal depression. Early paternal depression has considerable emotional, behavioral, and developmental impacts on their children. Genetic endowment and environmental factors induced by paternal depression-related behaviors may lead to adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. Conclusions and Relevance: The findings suggest that paternal depression negatively influences neurodevelopmental disorders in the offspring.

Левое либертарианство и генетическая справедливость

Distributive justice is one of the central questions of contemporary moral and political phi­losophy. Discussions on this topic are often presented as a confrontation between two groups of thinkers: libertarians and luck egalitarians. The former emphasize the dependence of the existing distribution on the individual choice and personal responsibility of people, and therefore are skeptical about various redistribution programs. The latter, on the contrary, emphasize the influence of morally arbitrary luck on the economic situation of people, and therefore welcome redistributive measures to compensate for this brute luck. Left-libertarian claims to reconcile these two types of moral considerations. The classical left-libertarian point of view seeks to offset the influence of brute luck through an egalitarian distribution of the benefits of owning natural resources that are independent of anyone’s choice and respon­sibility. However, this position does not sufficiently take into account the influence of other factors of brute luck and, in particular, genetic endowments on the distribution of economic wealth. This article discusses three approaches that allow left-libertarians to take into ac­count the factor of genetic luck in interpersonal distribution. First, it is Hillel Steiner’s pro­posal to attribute genetic information to natural resources, the benefits of which are subject to egalitarian redistribution. Second, it is the concept of equal opportunity for welfare by Pe­ter Vallentyne, Michael Otsuka and Eric Roark. Thirdly, it is the universal dominance crite­rion of Philippe Van Parijs and Kasper Ossenblok. The first two approaches face a number of moral and practical difficulties, but the third approach is able to overcome them. Thus, the universal dominance criterion is the most promising way to reconcile left-libertarianism and justice in the distribution of genetic endowments.

A Study Of Genetic Endowment Of The Human Ear Lobe Attachment In Selective Sample Of Sriganganagar District, Rajasthan

Introduction- The earlobe is formed by tough areola and adipose tissue, lacking the firmness and elasticity of the rest of the ear auricle. The study of earlobe attachment, as a morphogenetic trait can be used to investigate the diversity that arises within and among different populations due to genetic variations.
 Materials and methods- The present longitudinal randomized study was carried on randomly selected 100 families, residing in Sriganganagar Rajasthan. Digital camera, USB Cable and laptop were used for the study.
 Results- Out of total 158 offspring 86.08% are free and 13.92% are attached. Males and females displayed the highest frequency of free earlobes. There is no significant gender difference in the pattern of earlobe attachment.
 Conclusion- The free earlobe is more predominant than attached earlobe and this study investigated an inheritance pattern of simple dominance recessive pattern where free earlobes are dominant over attached earlobes.

Investigating the mechanisms of G × SES interactions for education

There is a growing body of research exploring whether the opportunity to realize the genetic endowment for education varies by parental socio-economic status (G × SES). While the behavioral genetic Scarr-Rowe hypothesis (SRH) suggests stronger genetic effects for individuals with a high SES, the sociological compensatory advantage hypothesis (CAH) predicts weaker genetic effects. Using data from the German TwinLife survey, I estimate biometric twin models to test for a G × SES and whether it can be accounted for by SES differences in the effect of genes associated with cognitive ability. There is no G × SES for the secondary school track. For tertiary enrolment, however, there is a G × SES, in line with the CAH. While SES differences in the effect of genes associated with cognitive ability account for most of the G × SES, a small part is explained by SES differences in the effect of genes independent of cognitive ability.

Can Essentiality of Origin Save Meritocracy From The Luck Objection?

Rawls famously argued against meritocratic conceptions of distributive justice on the grounds that the accumulation of merit is an unavoidably lucky process, both because of differences in early environment, and innate talents. Thomas Mulligan (2018a) has recently provided a novel defense of meritocracy against the “luck objection”, arguing that both sources of luck would be mostly eliminated in a meritocracy. While a system of fair equality of opportunity ensures that differences in social class or early environment do not lead to differences in the accumulation of merit, Kripke’s essentiality of origin thesis means that our genetic endowments, and thus our innate talents, could not have been any other way. But if we could not fail to have our innate talents, Mulligan argues, then it is not a matter of luck that we have them, and so the merits we accumulate on their basis are not so luck-dependent. This paper argues that Mulligan’s appeal to the essentiality of origin thesis fails to rescue meritocratic conceptions of distributive justice from the luck objection for two reasons. First, even granting essentiality of origin and fair equality of opportunity, the contingencies of the market and the social environment mean that having some innate talents is far luckier than having others. And second, the appeal to essentiality of origin misses the underlying motivation for the luck objection, and ignores the intimate connection between desert and responsibility.

Heterogeneity in disease resistance and the impact of antibiotics in the US

We hypothesize that the impact of antibiotics is moderated by a population’s inherent (genetic) resistance to infectious disease. Using the introduction of sulfa drugs in 1937, we show that US states that are more genetically susceptible to infectious disease saw larger declines in their bacterial mortality rates following the introduction of sulfa drugs in 1937. This suggests area-level genetic endowments of disease resistance and the discovery of medical technologies have acted as substitutes in determining levels of health across the US. We also document immediate effects of sulfa drug exposure to the age of the workforce and cumulative effects on educational attainment for cohorts exposed to sulfa drugs in early life.

Functional Transcriptomic Analysis of Centenarians' Offspring Reveals a Specific Genetic Footprint That May Explain That They Are Less Frail Than Age-Matched Noncentenarians' Offspring.

Centenarians exhibit extreme longevity and compression of morbidity and display a unique genetic signature. Centenarians' offspring seem to inherit centenarians' compression of morbidity, as measured by lower rates of age-related pathologies. We aimed to ascertain whether centenarians' offspring are less frail and whether they are endowed with a "centenarian genetic footprint" in a case-control study, matched 1:1 for gender, age ±5 years, and place of birth and residence. Cases must have a living parent aged 97 years or older, aged 65-80 years, community dwelling, not suffering from a terminal illness, or less than 6 months of life expectancy. Controls had to meet the same criteria as cases except for the age of death of their parents (not older than 89 years). Centenarians were individuals 97 years or older. Frailty phenotype was determined by Fried's criteria. We collected plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 63 centenarians, 88 centenarians' offspring, and 88 noncentenarians' offspring. miRNA expression and mRNA profiles were performed by the GeneChip miRNA 4.0 Array and GeneChip Clariom S Human Array, respectively. We found a lower incidence of frailty among centenarians' offspring when compared with their contemporaries' noncentenarians' offspring (p < .01). Both miRNA and mRNA expression patterns in centenarians' offspring were more like those of centenarians than those of noncentenarians' offspring (p < .01). In conclusion, centenarians' offspring are less frail than age-matched noncentenarians' offspring, and this may be explained by their unique genetic endowment.

Muscle-tendon architecture in Kenyans and Japanese: Potential role of genetic endowment in the success of elite Kenyan endurance runners.

The specificity of muscle-tendon and foot architecture of elite Kenyan middle- and long-distance runners has been found to contribute to their superior running performance. To investigate the respective influence of genetic endowment and training on these characteristics, we compared leg and foot segmental lengths as well as muscle-tendon architecture of Kenyans and Japanese males (i) from infancy to adulthood and (ii) non-athletes versus elite runners. The 676 participants were divided according to their nationality (Kenyans and Japanese), age (nine different age groups for non-athletes) and performance level in middle- and long-distance races (non-athlete, non-elite and elite adult runners). Shank and Achilles tendon (AT) lengths, medial gastrocnemius (MG) fascicle length, pennation angle and muscle thickness, AT moment arm (MAAT ), and foot lever ratio were measured. Above 8years old, Kenyans had a longer shank and AT, shorter fascicle, greater pennation angle, thinner MG muscle as well as longer MAAT , with lower foot lever ratio than age-matched Japanese. Among adults of different performance levels and independently of the performance level, Kenyans had longer shank, AT and MAAT , thinner MG muscle thickness, and lower foot lever ratio than Japanese. The decrease in MG fascicle length and increase pennation angle observed for the adult Japanese with the increase in performance level resulted in a lack of difference between elite Kenyans and Japanese. The specificity of muscle-tendon and foot architecture of elite Kenyan runners could result from genetic endowment and contribute to the dominance of Kenyans in middle- and long-distance races.

Not by g alone: The benefits of a college education among individuals with low levels of general cognitive ability

In a longitudinal sample of 2593 individuals from Minnesota, we investigated whether individuals with IQs ≤ 90 who completed college experienced the same social and economic benefits higher-IQ college graduates did. Although most individuals with IQs ≤ 90 did not have a college degree, the rate at which they completed college had increased approximately 6-fold in men and 10-fold in women relative to rates in the previous generation. The magnitude of the college effect on occupational status, income, financial independence, and law abidingness was independent of IQ level, a finding replicated using the nationally representative NLSY97 sample. Additional analyses suggested the association of college with occupational status was consistent with a causal effect and that the educational success of individuals with low-average IQs may depend in part on non-ability factors, family socioeconomic status and genetic endowment. We discuss our finding in the context of the recent expansion in college attainment as well as the dearth of research on individuals with low-average IQs.