新,、中、美、英四國科學(xué)家對(duì)8200名中國人的基因進(jìn)行了仔細(xì)分析發(fā)現(xiàn),，中國南方人和北方人之間有0.3%的基因不一樣,，而且，講不同方言的群體之間也存在明顯的基因差異,。該研究將有助于科學(xué)家確定是否某些基因變異會(huì)使特定人群更易感染特定疾病，以便采取有針對(duì)性的預(yù)防措施,，并最終找到治療方法,。相關(guān)研究成果出版在最新一期的美國《人類遺傳學(xué)》雜志上。
研究由新加坡科技研究局人類基因組項(xiàng)目負(fù)責(zé)人Jianjun Liu領(lǐng)導(dǎo),。他表示,，目前還不知道這些基因差異說明了什么，但他們確實(shí)發(fā)現(xiàn)了某些基因會(huì)使某些人具有更容易感染某些疾病的傾向,。比如,，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，與中國的北方人相比,，南方人更容易患上鼻咽癌,。
另外，他們也在患有牛皮癬和系統(tǒng)性紅斑狼瘡這兩種慢性自體免疫病癥的病人身上發(fā)現(xiàn)了特殊的基因,。在分別查看了1000名患有牛皮癬的病人和沒有患病的人的基因之后,，研究人員在患有牛皮癬的病人身上的3個(gè)位置找到了特定的基因變異。劉建軍指出,，在這些病人身上,，這種基因變異非常普遍，而沒有該病癥的人身上則幾乎沒有出現(xiàn)這種變異,，找到這些基因非常有助于研究人員進(jìn)一步理解為何有些人容易患上該疾病,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
The American Journal of Human Genetics, 25 November 2009 doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2009.10.016
Genetic Structure of the Han Chinese Population Revealed by Genome-wide SNP Variation
Jieming Chen1, 12, Houfeng Zheng3, 4, 5, 12, Jin-Xin Bei6, 7, Liangdan Sun3, 4, 5, Wei-hua Jia6, 7, Tao Li8, 9, Furen Zhang10, Mark Seielstad1, 2, 11, Yi-Xin Zeng6, 7, Xuejun Zhang3, 4, 5 and Jianjun Liu1, 2, 3, 5, ,
1 Human Genetics, Genome Institute of Singapore, Singapore 138672, Singapore
2 Centre for Molecular Epidemiology, (Yong Loo Lin) School of Medicine, the National University of Singapore 117597, Singapore
3 Institute of Dermatology and Department of Dermatology at No.1 Hospital, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui 230032, P.R. China
4 Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui 230032, P.R. China
5 The Key Laboratory of Gene Resource Utilization for Severe Diseases, Ministry of Education and Anhui Province, Hefei, 230032, P.R. China
6 State Key Laboratory of Oncology in Southern China, Guangzhou 510060, P.R. China
7 Department of Experimental Research, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou 510060, P.R. China
8 The Department of Psychiatry & Psychiatric laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, P.R. China
9 The Department of Psychological Medicine and Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London SE5 8AF, UK
10 Shandong Provincial Institute of Dermatology and Venereology, Shandong Academy of Medical Science, Jinan, Shandong 250022, P.R. China
11 Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Population stratification is a potential problem for genome-wide association studies (GWAS), confounding results and causing spurious associations. Hence, understanding how allele frequencies vary across geographic regions or among subpopulations is an important prelude to analyzing GWAS data. Using over 350,000 genome-wide autosomal SNPs in over 6000 Han Chinese samples from ten provinces of China, our study revealed a one-dimensional “north-south” population structure and a close correlation between geography and the genetic structure of the Han Chinese. The north-south population structure is consistent with the historical migration pattern of the Han Chinese population. Metropolitan cities in China were, however, more diffused “outliers,” probably because of the impact of modern migration of peoples. At a very local scale within the Guangdong province, we observed evidence of population structure among dialect groups, probably on account of endogamy within these dialects. Via simulation, we show that empirical levels of population structure observed across modern China can cause spurious associations in GWAS if not properly handled. In the Han Chinese, geographic matching is a good proxy for genetic matching, particularly in validation and candidate-gene studies in which population stratification cannot be directly accessed and accounted for because of the lack of genome-wide data, with the exception of the metropolitan cities, where geographical location is no longer a good indicator of ancestral origin. Our findings are important for designing GWAS in the Chinese population, an activity that is expected to intensify greatly in the near future.
