Fortune-telling on gene grounds

Stroybat Genes

Sergey Kuznetsov, N+1

The President of the Russian Academy of Sciences announced a project for the genetic certification of the military – it is assumed that based on the analysis of the genome, it will be determined whether a particular person is suitable for service in the navy, in the landing force or in tank troops. The editorial board of N+1 asked geneticists whether genetic information could really be useful to military commissars, whether the genes of a paratrooper or a construction worker could exist, and whether a general genetic examination would not bring more problems than benefits.

On June 6, the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeev spoke about a joint project with the St. Petersburg Military Medical Academy, it is about creating a genetic passport of a serviceman. "Its essence is to find such genetic predispositions in military personnel that will allow them to be correctly oriented in military specialties. That is, to fully use the advantages that a genetic predisposition gives, which is very important... We are talking about understanding at the genetic level who is more predisposed, for example, to serve in the navy, who, perhaps, is more ready to become a paratrooper or a tankman. The project involves not only assessing the physiological state, but also predicting human behavior in stressful, critical situations, which are just related to the military profession. Resistance to stress, the ability to perform physical and mental operations under this stress, and so on – all this can be contained in the genetic passport of a serviceman. By the way, the scientific results of this study can be applied in the future for other, purely civilian professions," TASS quotes Sergeev as saying.

The editorial board of N+1 asked the head of the genome analysis laboratory Svetlana Borinskaya of the Institute of General Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Oleg Balanovsky, Head of the Laboratory of Genogeography, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, explain whether it is possible to determine a person's propensity to a certain military (or civilian) profession using genetic methods, assess his stress resistance, and what risks the universal genetic certification of the military carries.

Oleg Balanovsky:

The idea of using genetics for career guidance is not new, but the possibility of its implementation in practice is at least not obvious. The range of applications offered is wide – from frankly fantastic, like breeding an ideal soldier or a race of mindless slaves, to quite adequate – for example, the differences between sprinters and stayers in sports genetics.

But even proposals based on the genetic control of traits that are simple, well-studied and obviously important for choosing a profession run into a problem that cannot be solved now, and it is unknown whether it will be possible to solve it in the future. This is the problem of predicting the phenotype by genotype. Most often it turns out that knowing a person's genome, it is not possible to predict his somatic and even more so psychological signs (it is possible for average samples – but not for specific people).

Therefore, the signs important for career guidance are much easier, more reliable and cheaper to measure on the person himself than to predict these signs based on the genome of this person.

Svetlana Borinskaya:

There are several problems here. First, we need to determine whether there are any innate, genetic differences between tankers and sailors in anything other than height and weight (these parameters can be determined without a genetic passport).

The President of the Russian Academy of Sciences mentions stress resistance, and this immediately raises the following two questions: to psychologists – is there a difference in resistance to stress among tankers and sailors? And to geneticists – are there any genetic features underlying these differences, or is it the result of upbringing and training?

Stress resistance has – to simplify - three components. The first is genetic. Several genes do affect a person's resistance to stress, but their contribution is very small, percentages. The second factor, which is much more significant, is life history. What stresses a person has endured, whether there are injuries left after them, for example, post-traumatic stress disorder, which can deprive a person of the opportunity to work. Well, the third component is the so–called "stress coping strategies". This component is the result of training.

I'm not a military specialist, but it's hard to imagine that there are stress resistance genes in the Navy and stress resistance genes in artillery.

In addition, today geneticists can confidently diagnose only a fairly small list of so-called monogenic diseases associated with the "breakdown" of one particular gene. Even many hereditary diseases depend on genetic factors not so rigidly at all – in other words, the disease may or may not occur in the carrier of a certain mutation.

For example, the intensively studied Alzheimer's disease, when a person loses memory, is associated with genetic causes in 5 to 15 percent of cases. And in all other cases – with other reasons – for example, with a head injury. At the same time, Alzheimer's disease is a clearly diagnosed condition, and stress resistance is a much more vague sign.

Even a very well–known mutation - BRCA1, which increases the likelihood of developing breast cancer, does not lead to the development of the disease in 100 percent of cases.

Unfortunately, genetic data in many cases cannot even come close to providing the information about a person's condition that standard medical research provides.

In addition, there is a problem related to possible discrimination. For example, in America, testing was proposed for the presence of gene variants that reduce resistance to hypoxia, mutations in hemoglobin. And it turned out that African Americans have a much higher frequency of such gene variants, and they were afraid that because of this they would be banned from serving in the army. And there began a discussion – the rights of the individual should be protected and not to give the employer information about the genotype, or it is necessary to protect the rights of people who will sit there on the plane, where the pilot will lose consciousness due to the fact that he has such a genetic feature. Obviously, in such professions it is necessary to use all possible tests. But their reliability, their predictive power is still very small. Medical geneticist Evgeny Konstantinovich Ginter called these predictions "fortune-telling on gene grounds."

There are threats associated with the possible leakage of genetic information. If some attacker gets these "passports", he can sell them, for example, to insurance companies. And if there is a forecast for the development of some diseases in these data, the insurance company will increase the payment for medical insurance. In the same case, the bank may raise the loan rate. It turns out that you are being punished with a ruble for your innate genetic characteristics, which is a clear injustice. Unfortunately, in our country, the risk of leaks is quite high. But, of course, as a research program, this project is interesting and relevant.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru