SPECIAL: Chile will meet for the first time its population genetics
SANTIAGO, April 16, 2018 (Xinhua) — Image of the 11 April 2018, a student working on the project “1,000 genomes”, in a laboratory in the facilities of the center of Gerociencia, Mental Health and metabolism (GERO) University of Chile, in Santiago, capital of Chile. Chile will know in detail for the first time the genetics of its inhabitants thanks to the project “1,000 genomes”, through which it seeks to sequence the genomes of 1,000 people and 1,000 plant species, animals and micro-organisms. Involved in the project ensured that one of the objectives of the plan is to know if there is a genetic map in Chile, in order to characterize the main diseases affecting the country. “The project was born with the aim of understanding what the genetic heritage of our country. The nature of our country, insulated on one side by the sea and, on the other hand, the mountain range”, He told Xinhua Christian González, Director of the Center for Gerociencia, Mental Health and metabolism of the University of Chile. (Xinhua/Jorge Villegas)
By Christopher Chavez Bravo
SANTIAGO, 16 Apr (Xinhua) — Chile will know in detail for the first time the genetics of its inhabitants thanks to the project “1.000 genomes”, through which it seeks to sequence the genomes of 1.000 people and 1.000 plant species, animals and micro-organisms.
Involved in the project ensured that one of the objectives of the plan is to know if there is a genetic map in Chile, in order to characterize the main diseases affecting the country,
“The project was born with the aim of understanding what the genetic heritage of our country. The nature of our country, insulated on one side by the sea and, on the other hand, the mountain range”, He told Xinhua Christian González, Director of the Center for Gerociencia, Mental Health and metabolism (GERO) University of Chile.
The academic explained that one of the hypothesis to be tested is to determine if in Chile there are unique genetic signatures or marks.
“Obviously we are going to share the majority of the genome with the rest of the inhabitants of the planet, but it is possible that a small fraction of our genome make us different and that is what we intend to find out about this project”, expert.
The initiative “1000 Genomes” It is also developed by the center of genome regulation (CRG), the Center for advanced chronic diseases (ACCDiS ), the center of mathematical modeling (CMM), hosted at the University of Chile, and the Millennium Institute for integrative systems biology and synthetic (MIISSB), Catholic University.
For the first time is a project of this magnitude in Chile, pioneer in Latin America in the field country.
Gonzalez pointed out that this project has several foci of interest, one of them in terms of public policy.
“The majority of public health policy decisions are based on studies in patients or human subjects of the northern hemisphere courts, in United States, in Europe, some in Asia”, director of GERO explained.
However, meet “how much we seem to us and how much divergimos from the rest of the inhabitants of the planet will lead us into the future to design policies that are more focused on the things that concern our country”, added.
Identify the genetics will help characterize the major diseases that affect Chileans, Xinhua said the director of ACCDiS, Sergio Lavandero.
Humans share 99 percent of their hereditary information including; However, the remaining 1 percent explains its diversity, their physical differences and susceptibility to certain ailments, among other features.
One of the particularities of this study is that human species will not only analyse, but also plants and animals characteristic of Chile.
“In the background, the project also aims to meet this heritage that we have, and that is our and makes us different”, Lavandero said.
The expert of the Centre for advanced chronic illness cited as an example plant species that grow in the Atacama desert, the most arid in the world, capable of living in extreme conditions, similar to the Highland species or those living in Antarctica.
“It is interesting to understand how different animal species, vegetables and also microorganisms can deal with adaptation so extreme as extreme variations in northern climates, high salinity in the North, intense cold in the South, and therefore, understanding how the organism have adapted to that”, said Gonzalez.
One of the attractions of “1000 Genomes” is that crossing the joint work of geneticists, mathematicians, biologists, engineers and professionals from different disciplines.
In the rest of the world there are experiences related to the sequencing of genomes, as in China, where to analyze the genome of one million inhabitants and countries in Europe such as France and United Kingdom, It recently launched programs to analyze 100.000 people.
This plan was already released and experts of the five centres provide sequence about 100 people in a year.
Source: Agency Xinhuanet http:spanish.xinhuanet.com/