Genetic scientists from Israel conducted a study of male and female genes, during which they monitored their activity. As a result, it was found that there are more than 6.5 thousand differences in work between male and female genes.
Most interestingly, the more same-sex a gene was, the less natural selection was acting on it, according to Moran Gershoni of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. This was more pronounced among male genes. Scientists suggest that this may be due to the limited ability of female mammals to reproduce offspring, while the fertility of males is not limited by anything. The survival of a species is much more dependent on how high-quality the genes of the female are than that of the male, so the selection of the latter is not done very carefully.
As noted by Gershoni, women and men have almost the same DNA, except for a small "male" Y-chromosome, which is found exclusively in men and contains a small number of working genes. After conducting research on mice, it was found that it is quite possible to grow a full-fledged male body without this chromosome, while transferring only a few genes from it to another part of the genome.
At the same time, the female and male organisms work in completely different ways. Thus, in particular, diseases such as multiple sclerosis, hypertension or infertility are much more common in women than in men, while autism is a typically male problem.
In the course of studying several cases of infertility, Gershoni and his colleague Shmuel Pitokowski were interested in the fact that diseases of this kind, which are mainly caused by genetic factors, occur much more often than follows from the theory of evolution.
To answer this question, the researchers took samples of body tissue and blood from 550 women and men, after which they decoded DNA and analyzed the activity of genes in different cells of the body.
It has been found that a fairly significant part of genes - about a quarter of all DNA sections known to science that are involved in coding for proteins - work completely differently in male and female organisms.
Most of them, about six thousand genes, turned out to be associated with the work of one type of tissue - the mammary glands and breasts. Most of the rest of the genes were also associated with the work of this organ, and only about thirty genes influenced the work of six or more tissues simultaneously. The most interesting thing is that some of the genes located on the female X chromosome turned out to be more active in the male body than in the female. Scientists are currently unable to give a clear explanation for this.
Promotional video:
According to experts, certain differences in the work of about a hundred genes that are associated with blood vessels, the heart, and other vital organs, may explain the fact that the female and male organisms are differently predisposed to diseases. Thus, in particular, the NPPB gene, which is responsible for calcium circulation and heart protection from heart attacks, was most active in the body of young girls, but it sharply decreased its activity in the body of mature women with the onset of menopause. This allowed scientists to speculate that this behavior of this section of DNA may explain why mature women are much more likely to suffer from heart problems and osteoporosis.
In the same way, experts say, other genes are more active in the female brain than in the male, which explains why men are more likely to suffer from Parkinson's disease than the fair sex. The researchers hope that by further studying these genes, they will be able to understand the differences in the work of the male and female bodies and, based on this, develop new methods of treating diseases that take into account all the characteristics.
