China News Service, Beijing, March 27 (Reporter Sun Zifa) A new biology paper published in Nature Communications, an academic journal of Springer Nature, stated that a study showed that the protein content in the diet of pregnant female mice may Will affect the facial features of future generations. The findings bring new insights into how environmental factors, such as nutrition during pregnancy, affect the growing fetus.
According to the paper, the formation of facial shape is a complex process that occurs in the womb, and errors in this process can lead to congenital defects such as cleft palate or premature skull closure. Although some related genetic causes have been identified, environmental factors are also known to influence these diseases. Identical twins, subject to similar genetic and environmental influences, will still have slightly different facial features, but it is unclear how the more subtle facial features are shaped during development.
In this study, the co-corresponding authors of the paper, Andrei S. Chagin of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Igor Adameyko of the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, together with colleagues and collaborators, used a method to search for "enhancers" during facial development in human embryos - Regions of DNA that regulate gene expression were then cross-aligned with these enhancers and a list of genes known to help explain differences in facial features in humans.
Their research found that some enhancers are related to genes associated with the mTORC1 pathway, which controls how cells respond to nutrients. Activating these pathways in early embryonic development in mice and zebrafish results in enlarged facial features and thickened nasal cartilage. However, inhibiting this pathway results in elongated faces in zebrafish and elongated snouts in mice. Pregnant mouse embryos fed a high-protein diet had altered mTORC1 signaling and enlarged nasal sacs and mandibles compared with embryos fed a low-protein diet.
The authors believe that changing maternal diet can interact with and influence complex genetic mechanisms to shape a range of individual facial features. They concluded that this pathway may play a role in the formation of human facial features, but further research is needed. (over)