YouTube video by European Bioinformatics Institute - EMBL-EBI

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Scientists have uncovered gravity’s impact on the human genome—research that reveals how it functions in outer space. The Human Genome Project was launched in 1990, preceded by decades of breakthroughs in genetics. It eventually gave us a sequence of the human genome. Yet, while the physical rules behind the genome’s organization remain an active area of research, many questions are still largely unanswered. Among these is the impact of an omnipresent force influencing life on Earth: gravity. A new study in the journal Science Advances addresses some of these weighty questions by using an innovative technique: creating a zero-gravity, or microgravity, environment in order to reveal gravity’s impact on a human cell. The method serves two purposes: isolating gravity’s impact on the genome by removing it as a factor in experiments while, at the same time, showing how the genome functions in outer space, where gravity is nonexistent. “On Earth, the role of gravity is intriguing—it is a constant mechanical stress on everything,” explains Alexandra Zidovska, an associate professor in New York University’s physics department, who led the study. “We wanted to know what gravity’s role is in the genome’s organization and function here on Earth. To uncover it, you...

Specific ancient viral DNA sequences in the human genome are linked to genetic risk for multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, suggesting these elements may influence neurodegenerative disease development through changes in gene expression.