A small mutation of one gene has huge consequences for the whole person
The genetic loserPyotr Smirnov, "Newspaper.
It also explains the racial differences in these parameters among African Americans, whites, Asians and Hispanics.
Numerous works on the identification of genetic predisposition to certain diseases that have appeared recently owe their development not only to genetics, but also to a good mathematical apparatus, which often replaces the laws of biological logic for doctors and creates an invisible causal relationship at first glance.
There is nothing wrong with this: for example, if gene A occurs in 85% of sick people and only 3% of healthy people, then its connection with the disease is obvious to both mathematicians and doctors, even if the product of this gene or its functions are unknown. The fact that it can cause the disease somehow indirectly, "through third hands", does not detract from the reliability of the conclusions at all: predisposition is predisposition, even if we are talking about the genetic causes of some inexplicable passion for brown trousers.
But how nice it is when seemingly absolutely social phenomena like earnings and intellectual development acquire clear genetic causes: Roy Fry from the University of Pittsburgh, relying on extensive experimental data collected by him in California and his colleagues around the world, did not just link IQ, social status, health, life expectancy, race and activity of the parasympathetic nervous system. He claims that the origins of all differences are in mutations of just one gene.
The "enemy of the peoples" turned out to be the regulatory part of the gene encoding the muscarinic receptor M2, sensitive to the mediator of the nervous system acetylcholine. These receptors are widely represented both in the central nervous system and in the parasympathetic, controlling functions of internal organs. So even small changes in the number of receptors (we are not talking about quality, because mutations are in the regulatory part of the gene, not in the coding one) they affect both mental abilities and the activity of the main "conductor" of the parasympathetic nervous system – the vagus nerve (nervus vagus).
The vagus nerve is the tenth pair of cranial nerves, a paired mixed nerve containing motor, sensory and vegetative fibers. The vagus nerve supplies motor fibers to the muscles of the larynx, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, intestines, blood vessels, heart (inhibit the activity of the heart, regulate blood pressure). With sensitive fibers, the vagus nerve innervates the occipital parts of the dura mater, neck organs, stomach, lungs. The vagus nerve is involved: in many reflex acts (swallowing, coughing, vomiting, filling and emptying the stomach); in regulating the heartbeat, breathing; in the formation of the solar plexus.
These mutations, or rather, point substitutions of nucleotides, became the missing link that immediately explained all the above-mentioned differences at once.
Of course, good health and life expectancy are partly explained by the high status in society inherited from parents and a good education. But then how to explain the fact that the life expectancy of children adopted in Denmark in 1924-1947 correlated with the social class of their biological parents, but not legal ones? In this case, classical genetics simply "requires" the presence of some hereditary factor associated with both IQ and health.
As for the connection between the health and activity of the vagus, two experimentally confirmed hypotheses are involved here, named after the authors: Tracy's theory, which explains the low intensity of inflammatory reactions with high vagus tone, and Thayer's theory, which connects the emotional and physical state through the same vagus nerve. Moreover, the activity of this nerve, measured by the classical triad (variability and recovery time of heartbeats, respiratory sinus arrhythmia), correlates not only with average life expectancy and with the frequency of certain diseases, but also with race.
This whole system of half a dozen variables is simplified at once when accepting the "vagus hypothesis CHMR2". It does not contradict any of the mentioned connections, but rearranges the positions of cause and effect.
According to the "vagal hypothesis", the average IQ level, average life expectancy, vagal tone and social status depend on a single nucleotide at the rs8191992 position. If it is adenine (A variant of the gene), then the number of receptors in the cells of the body decreases, the tone of the vagus nerve decreases and the frequency of atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases increases - simultaneously with a decrease in intellectual abilities (attention, concentration, memory). If it is thymine (T-variant), then – on the contrary.
According to data collected by Fry in California, the average IQ of Blacks is 85.2, Hispanics - 87.7, Indians – 90.6, whites – 100, Asians – 104.6.
To link genetics with race, Fry used last year's data from Alison Kelly-Hedgpeth, who studied these alleles in the aspect of chronic inflammation. The "hierarchy" remained unchanged: the frequency of the "unsuccessful" A-variant was 0.86 for blacks, 0.57 for whites, and the happiest were long–lived and wise East Asians with 0.12.
The new theory also explains the so-called paradox of Spanish health: Spanish-speaking residents of the United States, as well as Indians, despite a relatively low average IQ and social status compared to whites, live significantly longer. But they also had the frequency of the "bad" A-variant equal to 0.33.
This, in turn, confirms the advantage of the "receptor-vagus-health" logical chain over the "intelligence-education-status-prosperity-health" that has dominated until today.
Fry's research, as well as more than sufficient tabular and graphical data, can be found even without special education in Nature Precedings. And although the difference is not so great as to talk about the dominance of one race over another, it is impossible to doubt its reliability. In the near future, it is unlikely that a new factor will appear that can concentrate all the variables around itself in the same way as the CHMR2 gene did.
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru24.02.2009