The "Where Did I Come From?" Game

Not only do genes influence the color of our eyes and other physical characteristics, but findings, reported in Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are by Robert Plomin, indicate genes also have an impact on our behavior.

    In other words, besides influencing a person's height, genetics also can have more to do with a person's plans to attend college than a household environment filled with books. Genetic tests that purport to measure innate abilities, however, do not predict if a person will find, make, or choose a way to activate an innate trait by, for example, actually attending and graduating from college.

     The realization that genetics have an impact on both body and behavior raises even greater concern about using the CRISPR-Cas9 technique to edit human genes, something that it appears Chinese researcher, He Jiankui, already has done. In contrast, what the Seleggt egg-producing company in Germany is doing, according to trendwatching.com, is very worthwhile. Seleggt is identifying the sex of male check eggs before they hatch, using the eggs for fertilizer, and eliminating previous inhumane methods of killing about 4.6 billion male chickens every year.
                                                                                                                                Editing affects not just one person's DNA; changes are passed on from generation to generation.That is all well and good, if, for example, an entire family tree inherits immunity to an infection. But mutation of a chosen gene, however well intended to be beneficial, might also cause mutation in non-targeted genes and other undesirable changes, such as deletion of sections of DNA, in the mix of chromosomes that make up a human person.

     The added realization that genes affect behavioral traits as well as physical ones means using CRISPR-Cas9 to change human genes is all the more irresponsible.

     My father used to say, "There are no fat Jautzes." Photos of relatives show whether he was right or wrong. They also show where my sister got her red hair. Just as Carl Zimmer wrote in She Has Her Mother's Laugh, we also should pay close attention to family histories of medical problems, such as fractured bones, we might share with ancestors. Looking at traits inherited from members of our family tree explains why our current generation has entrepreneurs, writers, actors, musicians, and only one scientist. In Vogue (March, 2019), I also noticed the Armenian-Syrian singer and composer, Karyyn, reported, "All of my aunts and uncles in Syria on my mom's side are artists, singers, musicians, and puppeteers."

     A young person trying to decide on a career can begin by finding out the professions their ancestors chose. On the PBS TV show that helps prominent people discover their roots, politicians often are amazed to learn of relatives who also were public servants.

     Playing "Where Did I Come From?" is fun. But, unless carefully played, using gene editing to change pieces becomes a very dangerous game.

Lyme Aid

Summertime and the living is not easy where Lyme disease is on the rise. Black-legged ticks that carry the disease are now in 30 countries and half of all U.S. counties, mainly from the Northeast to the Midwest. Some blame the increase on warming from climate change.

     You might see a bull's-eye rash swelling around the bacteria left by a tick bite, but symptoms listed at LymeDisease.org vary and complicate diagnosis. Patients may have severe migraines, muscle spasms, and even seem to have ALS. Blood tests are worthless. The bacteria head for body tissues where they can spread to muscles, nerves, the brain, and heart before the needed early treatment with antibiotics is begun. New antibody tests are being developed.

     Since ticks pick up Lyme disease by feeding on white-footed mice, there are efforts to combat the disease by developing ways to kill ticks in the yards and nesting materials mice inhabit and to prevent mice from carrying the disease. Gene editing might be able to make mice less tasty to ticks or to immunize mice from tick-carrying bacteria.

     In summer, it's far more fun to catch and release fireflies than to be caught by ticks...mosquitoes and wasps.