Eight years ago, Manifred Kayser, a geneticist at Erasmus MC
in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, began to wonder if it would be possible to
figure out what genes take part in facial construction (big nose, small
forehead, etc.). He thought that if it were possible to do this then eventually
there would be a computer program that could use DNA to reconstruct the face,
similar to what a sketch artist does with an eye witness. Before Kayser could conduct any research to
find these genes, he and his colleagues looked at MRI images to find different
points on the face to work with. The researchers found nine spots on the face
to work with. The distance between some spots was also going to be evaluated,
such as the distance from eye to eye.
The researchers looked at five groups of people as a part of
the International Viable Trait Genetics Consortium, each group contained from
545 and 2470 people. There was one gene that had already been found that
correlates to children’s facial shape. This gave researchers hope that they
would be able to link other genes to facial features. Before this experiment,
other researches had found a gene on chromosome 2 and one on chromosome 3 that
are linked to facial problems (cleft lip, deformed jaw). The two new genes they
discovered came as a surprise to them.
These five genes are just the beginning of a long process to
figure out what other genes contribute to facial features. Researchers say
there are many hundreds, or thousands of genes and variants that take part in
the process of constructing a face. One researcher thinks that within two to
five years there will be some sort of program that uses DNA to create a face.
Although it is not certain, these 5 genes give researchers hope that one day
they will be able to use DNA to construct a face. Crime labs will benefit in
forensic genomics when located a person or identifying a John Doe.
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