GENOME Entry #3: Chromosome 5 - Environment

Chromosome 5 is the home of several of the leading candidates for the title of the asthma gene. Asthma has proved to be impossible to pin down in genes because everybody in the world at some point has gotten asthma or has had some kind of allergy in their life. The author ends up comparing asthma to real life. He says that Asthma, eczeme, allergies are all caused by the same 'mast' cells in the body which are alerted and triggered by the same immunoglobulin-E molecules. The author is making the claim that it is because of pollution that there is an increase in asthma for people. The theory goes that dirt contains bacteria, especially mycobacteria, which stimulate one part of the immune system, whereas routine vaccination stimulates a different parts of the immune system. This goes to show that environment does impact how a person lives. Based on where they live, when people rarely travel and travel to a place where there is new viruses and bacteria, they are most likely to catch it because their immune system has never blocked anything like that and therefore they do not have the protection that they need unlike the natives that live there.