Stable Patterns of Gene Expression Regulating Carbohydrate Metabolism Determined by Geographic Ancestry
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ABSTRACT: Individuals of African descent in the United States suffer disproportionately from diseases with a metabolic etiology (obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes), and from the pathological consequences of these disorders (hypertension and cardiovascular disease). Using a combination of genetic/genomic and bioinformatics approaches, we identified a large number of genes that were both differentially expressed between American subjects self-identified to be of either African or European ancestry and that also contained single nucleotide polymorphisms that distinguish distantly related ancestral populations. Several of these genes control the metabolism of simple carbohydrates and are direct targets for the SREBP1, a metabolic transcription factor also differentially expressed between our study populations. These data support the concept of stable patterns of gene transcription unique to a geographic ancestral lineage. The coordinated transcriptional adaptation of carbohydrate metabolism to dietary environmental pressures suggests a genetic and transcriptional mechanism for the disproportionate levels of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease observed in Americans with African ancestry. Keywords: Ancestry-dependent gene expression, functional genomics, personalized medicine, multi-factoral disease, nutrition, diabetes
ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens
PROVIDER: GSE12959 | GEO | 2009/10/31
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA110945
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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