Mely
December 8th, 2009, 09:04 PM
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<H1>'Curly hair gene' discovered by scientists
A 'curly hair gene' has been discovered by scientists, paving the way for a pill that could perform the same function as hair straighteners.
Published: 10:29AM GMT 07 Dec 2009
The discovery will also make it possible to predict whether a baby will have straight or curly hair.
And the new information will also allow detectives to use DNA to produce more accurate efits of their suspects.
The groundbreaking research identified the trichohyalin gene as the one that is mainly responsible for creating curls.
Although is was already known to play some role in the development of the hair follicle, scientists at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) have now found its role in curliness.
Professor Nick Martin, head of the QIMR Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory and author of the research, says it is variation in this gene that determines straightness or curliness of hair.
Prof Martin and colleague Dr Sarah Medland sought to find genetic variations responsible for curly hair in those of European descent.
Research suggests that 45 per cent of European people have straight hair, 40 per cent have wavy hair and 15 per cent have curly hair.
Studies also show that the chances of inheriting curly hair is around 90 per cent.
Researchers at the QIMR laboratory analysed data collected from a study of 5000 twins in Australia over a 30 year period.
Prof Martin, who has curly hair himself inherited from his mother's side of the family, said: "We studied large amounts of information on a diverse range of traits."
Comparing maps of the twins' genomes showed the same sorts of variations in the trichohyalin gene among those with curly hair and again among those with straight hair.
Prof Martin added: "This gene has been known for well over twenty years as being involved in hair production and it's a gene that sits in the sheath that's around hair roots."
It is thought that a variation in this gene may create an amino acid change which in turn influences the straightness or curliness of the hair.
Prof Martin reveals that it may now be possible to come up with treatments to make hair straighter as an alternative to heated hair-straighteners.
He said: "Potentially we can now develop new treatments to make hair curlier or straighter, rather than treating the hair directly.
"That is one angle we will be working on and which I will be discussing with a major cosmetic company in Paris in January.
"Also, we could certainly predict whether it was more probable that a baby would have curly or straight hair. We plan to keep working on this to improve the prediction.
"The most immediate application is likely to be in forensics.
"We might be able to refine identikit pictures from DNA samples left at a crime scene to say whether the suspect had straight or curly hair.
"We can already predict their hair and eye and skin colour, so this would be another trait to refine the picture."
The study appears in the latest edition of the American Journal of Human Genetics .
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6751910/Curly-hair-gene-discovered-by-scientists.html
<H1>'Curly hair gene' discovered by scientists
A 'curly hair gene' has been discovered by scientists, paving the way for a pill that could perform the same function as hair straighteners.
Published: 10:29AM GMT 07 Dec 2009
The discovery will also make it possible to predict whether a baby will have straight or curly hair.
And the new information will also allow detectives to use DNA to produce more accurate efits of their suspects.
The groundbreaking research identified the trichohyalin gene as the one that is mainly responsible for creating curls.
Although is was already known to play some role in the development of the hair follicle, scientists at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) have now found its role in curliness.
Professor Nick Martin, head of the QIMR Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory and author of the research, says it is variation in this gene that determines straightness or curliness of hair.
Prof Martin and colleague Dr Sarah Medland sought to find genetic variations responsible for curly hair in those of European descent.
Research suggests that 45 per cent of European people have straight hair, 40 per cent have wavy hair and 15 per cent have curly hair.
Studies also show that the chances of inheriting curly hair is around 90 per cent.
Researchers at the QIMR laboratory analysed data collected from a study of 5000 twins in Australia over a 30 year period.
Prof Martin, who has curly hair himself inherited from his mother's side of the family, said: "We studied large amounts of information on a diverse range of traits."
Comparing maps of the twins' genomes showed the same sorts of variations in the trichohyalin gene among those with curly hair and again among those with straight hair.
Prof Martin added: "This gene has been known for well over twenty years as being involved in hair production and it's a gene that sits in the sheath that's around hair roots."
It is thought that a variation in this gene may create an amino acid change which in turn influences the straightness or curliness of the hair.
Prof Martin reveals that it may now be possible to come up with treatments to make hair straighter as an alternative to heated hair-straighteners.
He said: "Potentially we can now develop new treatments to make hair curlier or straighter, rather than treating the hair directly.
"That is one angle we will be working on and which I will be discussing with a major cosmetic company in Paris in January.
"Also, we could certainly predict whether it was more probable that a baby would have curly or straight hair. We plan to keep working on this to improve the prediction.
"The most immediate application is likely to be in forensics.
"We might be able to refine identikit pictures from DNA samples left at a crime scene to say whether the suspect had straight or curly hair.
"We can already predict their hair and eye and skin colour, so this would be another trait to refine the picture."
The study appears in the latest edition of the American Journal of Human Genetics .
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6751910/Curly-hair-gene-discovered-by-scientists.html