Bits of Mystery DNA, Far From
‘Junk,’ Play Crucial Role
Among the many mysteries of human biology is why complex diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure and psychiatric disorders are so difficult to predict and, often, to treat. An equally perplexing puzzle is why one individual gets a disease like cancer or depression, while an identical twin remains perfectly healthy.
Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times
“It is like opening a wiring closet and seeing a hairball of wires,” Mark Gerstein of Yale University said of the DNA intricacies.
Now scientists have discovered a vital clue to unraveling these riddles. The human genome is packed with at least four million gene switches that reside in bits of DNA that once were dismissed as “junk” but that turn out to play critical roles in controlling how cells, organs and other tissues behave. The discovery, considered a major medical and scientific breakthrough, has enormous implications for human health because many complex diseases appear to be caused by tiny changes in hundreds of gene switches.
The findings, which are the fruit of an immense federal project involving 440 scientists from 32 laboratories around the world, will have immediate applications for understanding how alterations in the non-gene parts of DNA contribute to human diseases, which may in turn lead to new drugs. They can also help explain how the environment can affect disease risk. In the case of identical twins, small changes in environmental exposure can slightly alter gene switches, with the result that one twin gets a disease and the other does not.
【Among】
【前】
- 〔場所が〕～に囲まれた、～の間の
- 〔集団の〕中にいる、〔集団と〕同行する
- 〔～の間で〕共有して、共通した
- ～が共同で、～が一緒になって
- 〔分配するときに〕～の間で、～がそれぞれ
- 〔三つ以上が〕お互いに、同士で
こんにちは。
Among、昨日に引き続き随分知名度の高い単語ですね。 さてこのAmong、大きく分けると【共通】と【間】系の単語に分かれているように見えますね。この二つを上に上げて見てみると、【一緒にいる、ある】とういうことになりますかね？
なんか適当に見えますがこんなもんです