help button home button Genetics J Clin Inv
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Originally published as Genetics Published Articles Ahead of Print on January 21, 2007.

Genetics, Vol. 175, 1607-1613, April 2007, Copyright © 2007
doi:10.1534/genetics.106.069047

This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Data Supplement
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
genetics.106.069047v1
175/4/1607    most recent
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Choi, J. K.
Right arrow Articles by Kim, S. C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Choi, J. K.
Right arrow Articles by Kim, S. C.

Environmental Effects on Gene Expression Phenotype Have Regional Biases in the Human Genome

Jung Kyoon Choi*,1 and Sang Cheol Kim{dagger}

* Korean BioInformation Center, KRIBB, Yooseong-goo, Daejeon, 305-806, Korea and {dagger} Department of Applied Statistics, Yonsei University, Seodaemoon-goo, Seoul, 120-749, Korea

1 Corresponding author: Korean BioInformation Center, KRIBB, 52 Eoeun-dong, Yooseong-goo, Daejeon, 305-806, Republic of Korea.
E-mail: jungkyoon{at}gmail.com

Phenotypic discordance between monozygotic twins, such as a difference in disease susceptibility, implicates the role of the environment in determining phenotype. To assess genomewide environmental effects on "gene expression phenotype," we employed a published microarray data set for twins. We found that variations in expression phenotypes between monozygotic twins have biases in their chromosomal locations. They also showed a strong inverse correlation with gene density. Genomic regions of low gene density were environmentally sensitive, containing genes involved in response to external signals, cell differentiation, and development, etc. Genetic factors were found to make no contribution to the observed regional biases, stressing the role of epigenetics. We propose that epigenetic modifications might occur more frequently in heterochromatic, gene-poor regions in response to environmental signals while gene-rich regions tend to remain in an active chromatin configuration for the constitutive expression of underlying genes.






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2007 by the Genetics Society of America.